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THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 


CRISPINA 

BUST   IN   THE    BRITISH    MUSEUM 


THE 
EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 


JOSEPH  McCABE 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  DECAY  OF  THE   CHURCH  OF  ROME' 


WITH  TWENTY-FOUR   ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW    YORK 

HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY 

1911 


(V'^^b^jLcuc^.'yr^ 


a9^^^f 


J)G-a7/ 


NOTE 

THE  period  embraced  by  this  work  extends  to  the 
fall  of  the  Western  Empire,  or  to  the  middle  of 
the  fifth  century.  It  was  felt  that  a  more  extensive 
range  would  involve  either  an  inconveniently  large  work 
or  an  inadequate  treatment.  While,  therefore,  the  Em- 
presses of  the  East  have  been  included  down  to  the  fall 
of  Rome,  it  seemed  that  the  collapse  of  the  Empire  in 
Rome  and  the  West  indicated  a  quite  natural  term  for 
the  present  study.  The  restriction  has  enabled  the  author 
to  tell  all  that  is  known  of  the  Empresses  of  Rome  within 
that  period,  to  enlarge  the  interest  of  the  study  by  framing 
the  Imperial  characters  in  occasional  sketches  of  their 
surroundings,  and  to  weave  the  threads  of  biography  into 
a  continuous  story. 


CONTENTS 

rAOB 

Introduction i 

CHAP. 

1.      THE    MAKING    OF   AN    EMPRESS 7 

II.      THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN   AGE 23 

III.  THE  WIVES  OF  CALIGULA 46 

IV.  VALERIA    MESSALINA 60 

V.      THE   MOTHER    OF    NERO 79 

VI.      THE   WIVES    OF   NERO I05 

VII.      THE  EMPRESSES  OF  THE  TRANSITION  .  .  .  .182 

VIII.       PLOTINA 136 

,    IX.      SABINA,   THE    WIFE   OF    HADRIAN I49 

X.      THE  WIVES   OF  THE  STOICS 163 

XI.      THE    WIVES   OF   THE   SYBARITES 1 79 

XII.      JULIA    DOMNA I94 

XIII.  IN    THE  DAYS   OF   ELAGABALUS 2IO 

XIV.  ANOTHER   SYRIAN    EMPRESS 222 

XV.      ZENOBIA   AND   VICTORIA 233 

rii 


vm 


THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 


CHAP. 

XVI.  THE   WIFE   AND   DAUGHTER    OF    DIOCLETIAN 

XVII.  THE   FIRST   CHRISTIAN    EMPRESSES     . 

-XVIII.  THE   WIVES   OF   CONSTANTIUS   AND  JULIAN 

XIX.  JUSTINA 

XX.  THE   ROMANCE   OF    EUDOXIA    AND    EUDOCIA 

XXI.  THE    LAST   EMPRESSES   OF   THE   WEST 

INDEX     


\ 

PACK 
250 

265 

286 

306 

322 

351 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Crispina.     Bust  in  the  British  Museum    ....       Frontispiece 
From  a  photograph  by  W.  A.  Mansell  &  Co. 

FACING   PACK 

LiviA  AS  Ceres.    Statue  in  the  Louvre 20 

Julia.     Bust  in  the  Museum  Chiaramonti 28 

Agrippina  the  Elder.     Bust  in  the  Museum  Chiaramonti    .        .  46 

Messalina.    Bust  in  the  Uffizi  Palace,  Florence      ....  70 

Agrippina  the  Younger.    Bust  in  Museo  Nazionale,  Florence     .  82 

Octavia.     Porphyry  Bust  in  the  Louvre II2 

POPP/EA.    Bust  in  the  Capitoline  Museum,  Rome     .        .        .        .118 
From  a  photograph  by  Anderson. 

DOMITIA.    Bust  in  the  Uffizi  Gallery,  Florence  ....     130 

Plotina.     Statue  in  the  Louvre 142 

From  a  photograph  by  W.  A.  Mansell  &  Co. 

Sabina.     Bust  in  the  British  Museum 154 

From  a  photograph  by  W.  A.  Mansell  &  Co. 

Faustina  the  Elder.    Bust  in  the  Louvre 164 

From  a  photograph  by  A.  GitAUDON. 

Faustina  the  Younger.    Bust  (reputed)  in  the  British  Museum.     172 
From  a  photograph  by  W.  A.  Mansell  &  Co. 

Lucilla.    Bust  in  the  National  Museum,  Rome       ....     184 

From  a  photograph  by  Anderson. 

Julia  Domna.     Bust  in  the  Vatican  Museum 202 

From  a  photograph  by  Anderson. 

Julia  M^esa.     Bust  in  the  Capitoline  Museum,  Rome      .        .        ,     214 

From  a  photograph  by  Anderson. 

Julia  Mam^a.    Bust  in  the  British  Museum 226 

From  a  photograph  by  W.  A.  Mansell  &  Co. 


X  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

FACING  PAOK 

Marcia  Otacilia  Severa 236 

From  a  photograph  by  W.  A.  Man  sell  &  Co. 

Zenobia 248 

Enlarged  from  coin  in  the  Berlin  Museum. 

Salonika  and  Valeria 262 

Enlarged  from  coins  in  the  British  Museum. 

Fausta  and  Flavia  Helena 280 

Enlarged  from  coins  in  the  British  Museum. 

JEuA  Flaccilla  and  Honoria 316 

Enlarged  from  coins  in  the  British  Museum. 

EUDOXIA  AND   PULCHERIA 330 

Enlarged  from  coins  in  the  British  Museum. 

Placidia  and  Euphemia 342 

Enlarged  from  coins  in  the  British  Museum. 


THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 


THE 
EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

INTRODUCTION 

THE  story  of  Imperial  Rome  has  been  told  frequently 
and  impressively  in  our  literature,  and  few  chapters 
in  the  long  chronicle  of  man's  deeds  and  failures 
have  a  more  dramatic  quality.  Seven  centuries  before  our 
era  opens,  when  the  greater  part  of  Europe  is  still 
hidden  under  virgin  forests  or  repellent  swamps,  and  the 
decaying  civilizations  of  the  East  cast,  as  they  die,  their 
seed  upon  the  soil  of  Greece,  we  see,  in  the  grey  mist  of 
the  legendary  period,  a  meagre  people  settling  on  one  of 
the  seven  hills  by  the  Tiber.  As  it  grows  its  enemies  are 
driven  back,  and  it  spreads  confidently  over  the  neigh- 
bouring hills  and  down  the  connecting  valleys.  It  gradually 
extends  its  rule  over  other  Italian  peoples,  bracing  its  arm 
and  improving  its  art  in  the  long  struggle.  It  grows  con- 
scious of  its  larger  power,  and  sends  its  legions  eastward, 
over  the  blue  sea,  to  gather  the  wealth  and  culture  of  Egypt, 
Assyria,  Persia,  and  Greece ;  and  westward  and  northward, 
over  the  white  Alps,  to  sow  the  seed  in  Germany,  Gaul, 
Britain,  and  Spain.  A  hundred  years  before  the  opening 
of  the  present  era  the  tiny  settlement  on  the  Palatine  has 
become  the  mistress  of  the  world.  Its  eagles  cross  the 
waters  of  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine,  and  glitter  in  the  sun 
of  Asia  and  Africa.  But,  with  the  wealth  of  the  dying 
East,  it  has  inherited  the  germs  of  a  deadly  malady.  Rome, 
the  heart  of  the  giant  frame,  loses  its  vigour.     The  strong 


2  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

bronze  limbs  look  pale  and  thin ;  the  clear  cold  brain  is 
overcast  with  the  fumes  of  wine  and  heated  with  the  thrills 
of  sense;  and  Rome  passes,  decrepit  and  dishonoured, 
from  the  stage  on  which  it  has  played  so  useful  and  fateful 
a  part. 

The  fresh  aspect  of  this  familiar  story  which  I  propose 
to  consider  is  the  study  of  the  women  who  moulded  or 
marred  the  succeeding  Emperors  in  their  failure  to  arrest, 
if  not  their  guilt  in  accelerating,  the  progress  of  Rome's 
disease.  Woman  had  her  part  in  the  making,  as  well  as^ 
the  unmaking,  of  Rome.  In  the  earlier  days,  when  her 
work  was  confined  within  the  walls  of  the  home,  no  consul 
ever  guided  the  momentous  fortune  of  Rome,  no  soldier 
ever  bore  its  eagles  to  the  bounds  of  the  world,  but  some 
woman  had  taught  his  lips  to  frame  the  syllables  of  his 
national  creed.  However,  long  before  the  commencement* 
of  our  era,  the  thought  and  the  power  of  the  Roman  woman 
went  out  into  the  larger  world  of  public  life;  and  when 
the  Empire  is  founded,  when  the  control  of  the  State's 
mighty  resources  is  entrusted  to  the  hands  of  a  single 
ruler,  the  wife  of  the  monarch  may  share  his  power,  and 
assuredly  shares  his  interest  for  us.  Even  as  mere  women  * 
of  Rome,  as  single  figures  and  types  rising  to  the  luminous 
height  of  the  throne  out  of  the  dark  and  indistinguishable 
crowd,  they  deserve  to  be  passed  in  review. 

Some  such  review  we  have,  no  doubt,  in  the  two  great 
works  which  spread  the  panorama  of  Imperial  Rome  before 
the  eyes  of  English  readers.  In  the  graceful  and  restrained 
chapters  of  Merivale  we  find  the  earlier  Empresses  de- 
lineated with  no  less  charm  than  learning.  In  the  more 
genial  and  voluptuous  narrative  of  Gibbon  we  may,  at 
intervals,  follow  the  fortunes  and  appreciate  the  character 
of  the  later  Empresses.  But,  no  matter  how  nice  a  skill 
in  grouping  the  historian  may  have,  his  stage  is  too 
crowded  either  for  us  to  pick  out  the  single  character  with 
proper  distinctness,  or  for  him  to  appraise  it  with  entire 
accuracy.  The  fleeting  glimpses  of  the  Empresses  which 
we  catch,  as  the  splendid  panorama  passes  before  us,  must 


INTRODUCTION  3 

be  blended  in  a  fuller  and  steadier  picture.  The  tramp 
and  shock  of  armies,  the  wiles  of  statesmen,  the  social 
revolutions,  which  absorb  the  historian,  must  fall  into  the 
background,  that  the  single  figure  may  be  seen  in  full 
contour.  When  this  is  done  it  will  be  found  that  there 
are  many  judgments  on  the  Empresses,  both  in  Merivale 
and  Gibbon,  which  the  biographer  will  venture  to  question. 

For  the  study  of  the  earlier  Empresses  the  English 
reader  will  find  much  aid  in  Mr.  Baring-Gould's  "  Tragedy 
of  the  Caesars  "( 1 892).  Here  again,  however,  though  the 
Empresses  are  drawn  with  discriminating  freshness  and 
full  knowledge,  they  are  constantly  merging  in  the  great 
crowd  of  characters.  The  aim  of  the  present  work  is  to 
place  them  in  the  full  foreground,  and  to  continue  the 
survey  far  beyond  the  limits  of  Mr.  Baring-Gould's  work. 
It  differs  also  in  this  latter  respect  from  Stahr's  brilliant 
"  Kaiser-Frauen,"  which  is,  in  fact,  now  almost  unobtain- 
able ;  and  especially  from  V.  Silvagni's  recent  work,  of 
unhappy  title,  *'  L'lmpero  e  le  Donne  dei  Cesari,"  which 
merely  includes  slight  and  familiar  sketches  of  four  Em- 
presses in  a  general  study  of  the  period. 

The  work  differs  in  quite  another  way  from  the  learned 
and  entertaining  book  of  the  old  French  writer  Roergas  de 
Serviez,  of  which  an  early  English  translation  has  recently 
been  republished  under  the  title  '*  The  Roman  Empresses, 
or  the  History  of  the  Lives  and  Secret  Intrigues  of  the 
Wives  of  the  Twelve  Caesars  " — an  improper  title,  because 
the  work  is  far  from  confined  to  the  wives  of  the  Caesars. 
The  work  is  an  industrious  compilation  of  original  refer- 
ences to  the  Empresses,  interwoven  with  considerable  art, 
so  as  to  construct  harmonious  pictures,  and  adorned  with 
much  charm  and  piquancy  of  phrase,  if  some  hollowness 
of  sentiment.  But  it  is  so  intent  upon  entertaining  us  that 
it  frequently  sacrifices  accuracy  to  that  admirable  aim. 
Serviez  has  not  invented  any  substantial  episode,  but  he. 
has  encircled  the  facts  with  the  most  charming  imaginative 
haloes,  and  where  the  authorities  differ,  as  they  frequently 
do,  he  has  not  hesitated  to  grant  his  verdict  to  the  writer 


4  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

who  most  picturesquely  impeaches  the  virtue  of  one  of 
his  Empresses.  Roergas  de  Serviez  was  a  gentleman  of 
Languedoc  in  the  days  of  the  "grand  monarque."  His 
Empresses  and  princesses  reflect  too  faithfully  the  frail 
character  of  the  ladies  at  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV.  For 
him  the  most  reliable  writer  is  the  one  who  betrays  least 
inclination  to  seek  virtue  in  courtly  ladies. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  present  writer  is  indebted 
to  these  authors,  to  the  learned  Tillemont,  and  to  others 
who  will  be  named  in  the  course  of  the  work.  But  this 
study  is  based  on  a  careful  examination  of  all  the  references 
to  the  Empresses  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  authorities,  with 
such  further  aid  as  is  afforded  by  coins,  statues,  inscrip- 
tions, and  the  incidental  research  of  commentators.  We 
shall  consider,  as  we  proceed,  the  varying  authority  of 
these  writers.  We  shall  find  in  them  defects  which  impose 
a  heavy  responsibility  on  the  writer  whose  aim  it  is  to 
restore  those  faded  and  delicate  portraits  of  the  Empresses, 
over  which  later  artists  have  spread  their  sharper  and 
more  crudely  coloured  figures.  One  may,  however,  say 
at  once  that  it  is  not  contemplated  to  urge  any  very 
revolutionary  change  in  the  current  estimate  of  the 
character  of  most  of  them.  If  a  few  romantic  adventures 
must  be  honestly  discarded,  we  shall  find  Messalina  still 
flaunting  her  vices  in  the  palace,  Agrippina  still  pursuing 
her  more  masculine  ambition,  Poppaea  still  representing 
the  gaily-decked  puppet  of  that  luxurious  world,  and 
Zenobia,  in  glittering  helmet,  still  giving  resonant  com- 
mands to  her  troops. 

But  it  will  be  well,  before  we  introduce  the  first,  and»^ 
one  of  the  best  and  greatest  of  the  Empresses,  to  glance 
at  the  development  of  Roman  life  which  prepared  the  way 
for  woman  to  so  exalted  a  dignity.  The  condition  of 
woman  in  early  Rome  has  often  been  restored.  We  see 
the  female  infant,  her  fate  trembling  in  the  hand  of  man 
from  the  moment  when  her  eyes  open  to  the  light,  brought 
before  the  despotic  father  for  the  decision  of  her  fate. 
With  a  glance  at  the  little  white  frame  he  will  say  whether 


INTRODUCTION  5 

she  shall  be  cast  out,  to  be  gathered  by  the  merchants 
in  human  flesh,  or  suffered  to  breed  the  next  generation 
of  citizens.  We  follow  her  through  her  guarded  girlhood, 
as  she  learns  to  spin  and  weave,  and  see  her  passing 
from  the  tyranny  of  father  to  the  tyranny  of  husband 
at  an  age  when  the  modern  girl  has  hardly  begun  to  glance 
nervously  at  marriage  as  a  remote  and  mystic  experience. 
We  then  find  her,  not  indeed  so  narrowly  confined  as  her 
Greek  sister,  yet  little  more  than  the  servant  of  her 
husband.  Public  feeling,  it  is  true,  mitigated  the  harsher 
features,  and  forbade  the  graver  consequences,  of  this 
ancient  tradition.  For  many  centuries  divorce  was  un- 
known at  Rome.  Yet  woman's  horizon  was  limited  to 
her  home,  while  her  husband  boasted  of  his  share  in  con- 
trolling the  Commonwealth's  increasing  life. 

In  the  second  century  before  Christ  we  find  symptoms 
of  revolt.  The  wealthier  women  of  Rome  resent  the 
curtailing  of  their  finery  by  the  Oppian  Law,  now  that 
the  war  is  over  (195  B.C.).  Old-fashioned  Senators  are 
dismayed  to  find  them  holding  a  public  meeting,  besetting 
all  the  approaches  to  the  Senate,  demanding  their  votes, 
and  even  invading  the  houses  of  the  Tribunes  and  coercing 
them  to  withdraw  their  opposition.  The  truth  is  that 
Rome  has  changed,  and  the  women  feel  the  pervading 
change.  The  passage  of  the  victorious  Roman  through 
the  cities  of  the  East  had  corrupted  the  patriarchal  virtues. 
Roman  officers  could  not  gaze  unmoved  on  the  surviving 
memorials  of  the  culture  of  Athens,  or  make  festival  in 
the  drowsy  chambers  of  Corinthian  courtesans  or  the 
licentious  groves  of  Daphne,  without  altering  their  ideal 
of  life.  The  splendour  of  Eastern  wisdom  and  vice  made 
pale  the  old  standard  of  Roman  virtus.  The  vast  wealth 
extorted  from  the  subdued  provinces  swelled  the  pride  of 
patrician  families  until  they  disdainfully  burst  the  narrow 
walls  of  their  fathers'  homes.  The  hills  of  Rome  began  to 
shine  with  marble  mansions,  framed  in  shady  and  spacious 
gardens,  from  which  contemptuous  patrician  eyes  looked 
down  on  the  sordid  and  idle  crowds  in  the  valleys  of  the 


6  THE  EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

Subura  and  the  Velabrum.     Rome  aspired  to  have  its  art 
and  its  letters. 

Roman  women  were  not  content  to  be  secluded  from  % 
the  new  culture,  and  could  not  escape  the  stimulation  of 
their  new  world.  The  Roman  husband  must  be  kept 
away  from  the  accomplished  courtesans  of  Greece  and 
the  voluptuous  sirens  of  Asia  by  finding  no  lesser 
attractions  in  his  wife.  So  the  near  horizon  of  woman's 
mind  rolled  outward.  An  inscription  found  at  Lanuvium, 
where  the  Empress  Livia  had  a  villa,  shows  that  the  little 
provincial  town  had  a  curia  mulierum,  a  women's  debating 
club.  The  walls  of  Pompeii,  when  the  shroud  of  lava 
had  been  removed  from  its  scorched  face,  bore  election- 
addresses  signed  by  women.  The  world  was  mirrored 
in  Rome,  and  few  minds  could  retain  their  primitive 
simplicity  as  they  contemplated  that  seductive  picture. 

By  the  beginning  of  the  first  century  of  the  older  era  * 
the  women  of  Rome  had  ample  opportunity  for  culture 
and  for  political  influence.  In  the  great  conflicts  of  the 
time  their  names  are_jchronicled  as  the  inspirers  of  many 
of  the  chief  actors.  They  rise  and  fall  with  the  cause  of 
the  Senate  or  the  cause  of  the  People.  They  unite  culture 
with  character,  public  interest  with  beauty  and  mother- 
hood. At  last  the  conflicting  parties  disappear  one  by  one, 
and  a  young  commander,  Octavian,  the  great-nephew  of 
Julius  Caesar,  gathers  up  the  power  they  relinquish. 
A  youth  of  delicate  and  singularly  graceful  features,  of 
refined  and  thoughtful,  rather  than  assertive,  appearance, 
he  hears  that  Caesar  has  made  him  heir  to  his  wealth 
and  his  opportunities;  he  goes  boldly  to  Rome,  adroitly 
uses  its  forces  to  destroy  those  who  had  slain  Caesar, 
forces  Mark  Antony  to  share  the  rule  of  the  world  with 
him  and  Lepidus,  and  then  destroys  Lepidus  and  Mark 
Antony.  It  is  at  this  point,  when  he  returns  to  Rome 
from  his  last  victories,  when  the  whole  world  wonders 
whether  he  will  keep  the  power  he  has  gathered  or  meekly 
place  it  in  the  hands  of  the  Senate,  that  the  story  opens. 


CHAPTER  1 

THE   MAKING  OF  AN    EMPRESS 

ON  an  August  morning  of  the  year  29  B.C.  the 
million  citizens  of  Rome  lined  the  route  which 
was  taken  by  triumphal  processions,  to  greet  the 
man  who  brought  them  the  unfamiliar  blessing  of  peace. 
From  the  Triumphal  Gate  to  the  Capitol,  past  the  Great 
Circus  and  through  the  dense  quarter  of  the  Velabrum, 
with  its  narrow  streets  and  high  tenements,  the  chattering 
crowd  was  drawn  out  in  two  restless  lines,  on  either 
side  of  the  road,  ready  to  fling  back  the  resonant  "  lo 
Triumphe "  of  the  bronzed  soldiers,  bubbling  with  dis- 
cussion of  the  war-blackened  stretch  of  the  past  and  the 
more  pleasant  prospect  of  the  future.  The  hedges  of 
spectators  were  thicker,  and  the  debate  was  livelier,  under 
the  cliff  of  the  Palatine  Hill  and  in  the  Forum,  through 
which  ran  the  Sacred  Way  to  the  white  Temple  of 
Jupiter,  towering  above  them  and  crowning  the  Capitol 
at  the  end  of  the  Forum.  There  the  conqueror  would 
offer  sacrifice,  before  he  sank  back  into  the  common  rank 
of  citizens  of  the  Republic.  Would  the  young  Octavian 
really  lay  down  his  power,  and  become  a  citizen  among 
many,  now  that  he  was  master  of  the  Roman  world? 

Possibly  one  woman,  who  looked  out  on  the  seething 
Forum  and  the  glistening  temple  of  Jupiter  from  a 
modest  mansion  on  the  Palatine  Hill,  knew  the  answer 
to  the  eager  question.  Possibly  it  was  unknown  to 
Octavian  himself,  her  husband.  She  heard  the  blasts  of 
the  leading  trumpeters,  and  saw  the  sleek  white  oxen, 

7 


8  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

with  their  gilded  horns  and  their  green  garlands,  advance 
along  the  Sacred  Way  and  mount  the  Capitol.  She  saw 
the  people  rock  and  quiver  with  excitement  as  painted 
scenes  of  the  remote  Dalmatian  forests,  where  her 
husband's  latest  victories  had  been  won,  and  the  gold 
and  silver  of  despoiled  Egypt,  and  the  very  children  of 
the  witch  Cleopatra,  were  driven  before  the  conqueror. 
She  saw  the  red-robed  lictors  slowly  pass,  their  fasces 
wreathed  in  laurel;  she  saw  the  band  of  dancers  and 
musicians  tossing  joyful  music  in  his  path ;  and  she  saw 
at  last  the  four  white  horses  drawing  a  triumphal  chariot, 
in  which  her  husband  and  her  two  children  received  the 
frenzied  ovation  of  the  people. 

Octavian  was  then  in  his  thirty-fourth  year.  Fifteen 
years  of  struggle  had  drawn  a  manly  gravity  over  the 
handsome  boyish  face,  though  the  curly  golden  hair  still 
seemed  a  strange  bed  for  the  chaplet  of  laurel  that 
crowned  it.  His  full  impassive  lips,  steady  watchful  eyes, 
and  broad  smooth  forehead  gave  a  singular  impression 
of  detachment — as  if  he  were  a  disinterested  spectator  of 
the  day's  events  and  the  whole  national  drama,  instead 
of  being  the  central  figure.  The  busts  which  portray  him 
about  this  period  seem  to  me,  in  profile,  to  recall  David's 
Napoleon,  without  the  slumbering  fire  and  the  hard 
egoism.  Men  would  remind  each  other  how,  when  he 
was  a  mere  boy,  fifteen  years  before,  he  had  found  his 
way  through  a  maze  of  intrigue  with  remarkable  dexterity. 
Now,  Mark  Antony  was  dead,  Brutus  and  Cassius  were 
dead,  Lepidus  was  dead,  and  the  followers  of  Pompey 
were  scattered.  It  was  natural  to  assume  that  dreams  of 
further  power  were  hidden  behind  that  mask  of  strong 
repose. 

Behind  Octavian  went  the  body  of  Senators,  with 
purple-striped  togas,  and  silver  crescents  on  their  sandals. 
The  lines  of  spectators  broke  into  gossiping  groups  when 
the  tail  of  the  procession  had  passed  on.  The  white  oxen 
fell  before  the  altar  of  Jupiter.  Octavian  gave  the  custo- 
mary address  to  the  Senate,  and  joined  Livia  in  the  small 


THE   MAKING   OF   AN   EMPRESS  9 

mansion  on  the  Palatine.  But  for  many  a  day  afterward 
Rome  bubbled  in  praise  of  him.  Not  for  years  had  such 
combats  reddened  the  sands  of  the  amphitheatre,  such 
clowns  and  conjurors  and  actors  filled  the  stage  of  the 
theatre,  such  sports  fired  the  300,000  citizens  at  the  circus. 
Never  before  had  the  uncouth  form  of  the  rhinoceros  or 
hippopotamus  been  seen  at  Rome.  Not  since  the  beginning 
of  the  civil  wars  had  so  much  money  flowed  through  the 
shops  of  the  Velabrum  and  the  taverns  of  the  Subura.  Such 
wealth  had  been  added  to  the  public  store  by  the  despoil- 
ing of  Egypt  that  the  bankers  had  to  reduce  the  rate  of 
interest.  To  a  people  grown  parasitic  the  temptation  to 
make  a  king  was  overpowering ;  and  it  was  easy  to  point 
out,  to  those  who  clung  to  the  strict  democratic  forms,  that 
Octavian  was  extraordinarily  modest  for  a  man  who  had 
reached  so  brilliant  and  resourceful  a  position.  So  within 
a  few  months  Octavian  was  Imperator,  and  Livia  became, 
in  modern  phrase,  the  Empress  of  Rome.^ 

Livia,  unhappily  for  Rome,  gave  Octavian  no  direct 
heir  to  the  purple,  and  we  may  therefore  speak  briefly  of 
her  extraction.  She  came  of  the  Claudii,  one  of  the  oldest 
and  proudest  families  of  the  Republic,  one  that  numbered 
twenty-eight  consuls  and  five  dictators  in  its  line.  A 
strong,  haughty  race,  more  useful  than  brilliant,  religiously 
devoted  to  the  old  Republic,  they  had  helped  much  to  make 
Rome  the  mistress  of  the  world.  Livia's  father,  Livius 
Drusus  Claudianus,  had  taken  arms  against  Octavian  and 
Antony,  and  had  killed  himself,  with  Roman  dignity,  when 
Brutus  and  Cassius  fell,  and  he  saw  the  shadow  of 
despotism  coming  over  the  city. 

Livia  was  then  in  her  sixteenth  year,'  and  had  early 
experience  of  the  storms  of  Roman  political   life.      Her 

'  The  title  "  Empress  "  was  unknown  to  the  Romans.  "  Imperator  "  was 
a  name  of  military  command.  The  special  use  of  it  in  connexion  with 
Octavian  and  his  successors  was  that  it  was  given  for  life.  The  more  novel 
title  "  Augustus  "  was  extended  to  Livia,  who  later  became  "  Augusta." 

*  Pliny  places  her  birth  in  the  year  54  B.C.,  but  Dio  says  57  B.C.,  and  this 
date  is  confirmed  by  Tacitus, 


lo  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

husband,  Tiberius  Claudius  Nero,  had  been  promoted  more 
than  once  by  Julius  Caesar,  but,  after  the  assassination  of 
Caesar,  he  had  passed  into  what  he  regarded  as  the  more 
favourable  current.  He  seems  to  have  steered  his  course 
with  some  skill  until  the  year  41  b.c,  when,  like  many 
other  small  schemers,  he  came  under  the  influence  of  Mark 
Antony's  wife,  Fulvia.  Antony  was  caught  at  the  time  in 
the  silken  net  with  which  Cleopatra  prevented  him  from 
carrying  out  the  ambition  of  Rome  at  the  expense  of  her 
country.  Fulvia,  a  virile  and  passionate  woman,  tried  to 
draw  Antony  from  her  arms  by  provoking  a  revolt  against 
Octavian.  She  induced  her  brother-in-law  and  other 
nobles  to  rebel,  and  Nero,  who  was  then  prefect  of  a 
small  town  in  Campania,  joined  the  movement. 

Octavian  swung  his  legions  southward,  and  scattered 
the  thin  ranks  of  the  insurgents.  With  her  infant — the 
future  Emperor  Tiberius — in  her  arms  the  girl-wife  fled  to 
the  coast  with  her  husband,  and  endured  all  the  horrors  of 
civil  warfare.  So  close  were  the  soldiers  of  Octavian  on 
their  heels  that  at  one  point  the  cry  of  the  baby  nearly 
destroyed  them.  Octavian  had  little  mercy  on  rebellious 
nobles  before  he  married  Livia.  At  last  they  reached  the 
coast,  where  the  galleys  of  Sextus  Pompeius  hovered  to 
receive  fugitives,  and  sailed  for  Sicily.  They  were  cordi- 
ally received  there  by  the  Pompeians,  but  went  on  to 
Greece,  and  were  again  hunted  by  the  troops.  Long  after- 
wards in  Rome  they  used  to  tell  how  the  delicate  girl,  the 
descendant  of  all  the  Claudii,  fled  through  a  burning  forest 
by  night  before  Roman  soldiers,  and  singed  her  hair  and 
garments  as  she  rushed  onward  with  her  baby  in  her  arms. 
The  troubled  history  of  Rome  for  a  hundred  years  was 
stamped  on  her  mind  by  a  personal  experience  that  she 
could  never  forget.  With  worn  feet  and  aching  heart,  she 
and  her  husband  at  last  found  shelter,  until  the  feud 
between  Antony  and  Octavian  had  been  composed. 

From  the  straits  of  exile  they  returned  to  their  pretty 
home  on  the  Palatine  Hill,  and  the  story  of  her  adventures 
ran,  and  gathered  substance,  in  Roman  society.      If  the 


THE   MAKING   OF  AN   EMPRESS  li 

experts  be  right  in  assigning  to  Livia  a  small  mansion 
which  has  been  uncovered  on  the  hill,  we  find  that  she  was, 
in  the  year  38  B.C.,  living  only  a  short  distance  from  the 
house  of  Octavian.  Among  the  palatial  buildings  which 
now  whitened  the  slopes  of  the  Roman  hills,  Nero's  house 
— later,  Livia's  house — was  poor,  but  its  mural  paintings 
are  amongst  the  most  delicate  that  have  been  discovered 
under  the  overlying  centuries  of  mediaeval  rubbish.  A 
small  portico  gave  shelter  from  the  summer  sun,  and  the 
small,  cool  atrium  (hall)  led  only  to  some  half  dozen  modest 
rooms.  But  Livia  was  happy  in  her  husband,  and  sober  in 
her  tastes.  She  was  then  in  her  nineteenth  year,  a  young 
woman  of  regular  and  pleasing,  though  scarcely  beautiful, 
features  and  rounded  form,  one  of  those  who  happily 
united  the  old  matronly  virtue  to  the  new  love  of  society 
and  gaiety.  All  Rome  discussed  her  adventures,  and  the 
generous  feeling  which  her  romance  engendered  made 
people  give  her  an  exceptional  beauty  and  wit — qualities 
which  neither  her  marble  image  nor  her  recorded  career 
permits  us  to  accept  in  any  large  measure.  There  was  no 
whisper  of  slander  against  her  until  the  days  of  her  power. 
F>om  this  peaceful  and  happy  little  world  she  was  now  to 
be  suddenly  removed. 

Octavian,  who  mingled  very  freely  with  his  fellows,  and 
often  supped  with  the  literary  men  who  were  now  multi- 
plying at  Rome,  heard  the  gossip  about  the  youthful  Livia, 
and  sought  her.  He  was  already  married,  and  a  word  may 
be  said  about  the  imperatrices  ntanquees  before  we  unite  him 
to  Livia. 

In  early  youth  he  had  been  affianced  to  the  girlish 
daughter  of  Publius  Servilius  Isauricus,  but  a  mere  be- 
trothal had  little  strength  at  a  time  when  even  the  marriage 
bond  was  so  frail.  When  he  came  to  face  Mark  Antony, 
with  many  grim  legions  at  his  command,  and  a  fresh 
civil  war  was  threatened,  peacemakers  suggested  that  the 
storm  might  be  turned  from  the  fields  of  Italy  by  a 
matrimonial  alliance.  The  soldiers,  weary  of  slaying  each 
Other,  acclaimed  the  proposal.    Servilia  was  sacrificed,  and 


13  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Octavian  was  married  to  the  young  and  hardly  marriage- 
able daughter  of  Fulvia.  As  we  saw,  there  was  a  fresh 
rupture  with  Antony  in  the  year  41,  and  Octavian  sent 
back  the  maiden,  as  he  described  her,  to  her  infuriated 
mother.  Some  of  our  authorities  declare  that  Fulvia  had 
tried  to  draw  Antony  from  the  arms  of  Cleopatra  by 
making  love  to  his  handsome  rival,  but  one  can  only 
suppose  that  Antony  would  smile  if  he  were  told  that 
his  unpleasant  spouse— the  woman  who  is  said  to  have 
gloated  over  the  bloody  head  of  Cicero,  and  thrust  her 
hair-pin  through  his  tongue — was  offering  her  heart  to 
Octavian.  We  cannot,  therefore,  accept  the  rumour  that, 
when  Octavian  sent  back  her  daughter  to  Fulvia,  he 
maliciously  explained  that  he  was  anxious  to  spare  Fulvia 
the  mortification  of  thinking  that  he  had  preferred  the 
pretty  insipidity  of  Clodia  to  her  own  more  assertive 
qualities. 

The  marriage  with  Clodia  had  been  frankly  political, 
and  it  naturally  broke  down  in  the  new  political  dissolution. 
The  second  marriage  had  the  same  origin,  and  the  same 
welcome  termination.  He  had  married  Scribonia,  a  woman 
older  than  himself,  during  the  rupture  with  Antony,  because 
her  brother  was  one  of  the  chief  members  of  the  Pompeian 
faction.  The  leader  of  this  party,  Sextus  Pompeius,  held 
Sicily,  and  not  only  welcomed  fugitives  from  Octavian's 
anger,  but  commanded  the  sea-route  to  Rome.  Through 
his  devoted  friend  Maecenas,  the  famous  patron  of  letters, 
Octavian  proposed  a  marriage  with  Scribonia.  It  would 
not  be  unnatural  for  a  woman  in  her  thirties,  who  had 
already  outlived  two  husbands,  eagerly  to  espouse,  and 
probably  love,  so  graceful,  ambitious,  and  advancing  a 
youth  as  Octavian ;  but  to  him  the  alliance  was  only  one 
more  move  in  the  great  game  he  was  playing.  He  could 
bear  the  strain  of  a  diplomatic  marriage  with  ease,  since 
there  is  no  reason  to  reject  the  statement  of  Dio  and 
Suetonius  that  he  found  affection  among  the  wives  of  his 
nobler  friends. 

It  has  been  commonly  held  that  Octavian  masked  a  tense 


THE   MAKING   OF  AN  EMPRESS  13 

and  unwavering  ambition  with  an  affectation  of  simple 
joviality,  and  his  irregularities  have  been  excused  on  the 
ground  that  he  used  them  as  means  to  detect  political 
whispers  in  Roman  society.  But  this  view  of  Octavian's 
character  may  be  confidently  questioned.  His  tastes,  we 
shall  see,  remained  extremely  simple  when  he  might  safely 
have  indulged  any  feeling  for  luxury,  when  every  rival 
had  been  removed.  That  he  was  ambitious  it  would  be 
foolish  to  question ;  but  his  ambition  must  not  be  measured 
by  his  success.  There  are  few  other  cases  in  history  in 
which  fortune  so  wantonly  smoothed  the  path  and  drew 
onward  an  easy  and  vacillating  ambition.  Octavian  could 
well  believe  the  assurances  of  the  Chaldaean  astrologers 
that  he  was  born  to  power. 

With  all  his  simplicity,  however,  Octavian  had  some 
sense  of  luxury  in  love-matters,  and  his  imagination 
wandered.  Scribonia's  solid  virtue  was  unrelieved  by  any 
of  the  graces  of  the  new  womanhood  of  Rome,  her  sparing 
charms  had  already  faded  under  the  pitiless  sun  of  Italy, 
and  she  had  a  sharp  tongue.  Moreover,  his  marriage  with 
her  had  proved  a  superfluous  sacrifice.  Fulvia's  stormy 
career  had  come  to  a  close  shortly  after  the  return  of  her 
daughter,  and  Antony  and  Octavian  had  divided  the  Roman 
world  between  them.  Antony  married  his  colleague's 
sister,  but  the  pale  virtue  of  Octavia  had  no  avail  against 
the  burning  caresses,  if  not  the  calculated  patriotism,  of 
Cleopatra.  At  the  second  rupture  between  Antony  and 
Octavian  she  was  driven  from  Antony's  palace  at  Rome, 
where  she  was  patiently  enduring  his  distant  infidelity, 
and  sent  back  to  her  brother.  In  the  meantime  Octavian 
had  discovered  a  pleasanter  way  of  obtaining  peace  with 
the  Pompeians  than  by  the  endurance  of  Scribonia's  jarring 
laments  of  his  infidelity.  He  found,  or  alleged,  that  Sextus 
Pompeius  did  not  curb  the  pirates  of  the  Mediterranean 
as  he  ought,  and  he  determined  to  wrest  from  him  the 
rich  appointments  that  he  held.  He  was  in  this  mood 
when,  in  the  year  38  B.C.,  the  young  Livia  came  to  Rome, 
and   the   exaggerated   story  of   her    adventures    and   her 


14  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

beauty  began  to  circulate  among  the  mansions  of  the 
Palatine* 

Some  of  the  authorities  describe  Octavian  as  hovering 
about  her  for  some  time,  and  say  that  the  splendour  with 
which  he  celebrated  his  barbatoria,  or  first  shave  of  the 
beard,  was  due  to  the  generosity  of  his  new  passion.  It 
is  more  probable  that  he  at  once  informed  Nero  of  his 
resolution  to  marry  Livia.  Tacitus  expressly  says  that 
it  is  unknown  whether  Livia  consented  or  not  to  the 
change  of  husband.  Great  as  was  the  liberty  then  enjoyed 
by  Roman  women,  they  were  rarely  consulted  on  such 
matters.  Scribonia  received  a  letter  of  divorce,  in  which 
it  was  suggested  that  the  perversity  of  her  character  made 
her  an  unsuitable  spouse  for  so  roving  a  husband.  She 
had  given  birth  to  a  daughter  a  few  days  before,  and  we 
shall  find  the  later  chapters  of  this  chronicle  lit  up  more 
than  once  by  the  lurid  hatred  which  was  begotten  of  this 
despotic  dismissal.  For  the  moment  I  need  only  point  out 
that  later  Roman  writers  borrowed  their  estimate  of  the 
character  of  Livia  from  Scribonia's  great-grandchild,  the 
Empress  Agrippina,  and  we  must  be  wary  in  accepting 
their  statements.  Scribonia  herself,  who  came  so  near 
to  being  an  Empress,  we  must  now  dismiss,  save  that  we 
shall  catch  one  more  glimpse  of  her  when  she  follows  her 
dissolute  daughter  into  exile. 

Roman  law  imposed  a  fitting  delay  on  the  divorced  wife 
before  she  could  marry  again,  but  Octavian  was  impatient. 
He  consulted  the  sacred  augurs,  and,  if  the  legend  is 
correct,  the  diviners  gave  admirable  proof  of  their  art. 
They  gravely  reported  that  the  omens  were  auspicious  for 
an  immediate  marriage  if  the  petitioner  had  ground  to 
believe  that  it  would  be  fruitful.  The  verdict  entertained 
Rome,  because  Livia  was  well  known  to  be  far  advanced  in 
pregnancy,  and  Octavian  was  widely  regarded  as  the  father. 
Whether  that  be  true  or  no,  Octavian  intimated  to  Nero 
that  he  must  divorce  Livia,  and  we  cannot  think  that  she 
felt  much  pain  at  being  invited  to  share  the  mansion  in  the 
Palatine  to  which  all  Roman  eyes  were  now  directed.    An 


THE   MAKING  OF  AN  EMPRESS  15 

anecdote  of  the  time  lightly  illustrates  the  ease  with  which 
such  matrimonial  transfers  were  accomplished  at  Rome. 
Die  says  that,  during  the  festive  meal,  one  of  those 
bejewelled  boys  who  then  formed  part  of  a  Roman  noble's 
household,  and  whose  vicious  services  were  rewarded  with 
an  extraordinary  license,  said  to  Livia,  as  she  reclined  at 
table  with  Octavian  :  "  What  do  you  here,  mistress  ?  Your 
husband  is  yonder."  The  pert  youngster  pointed  to  Nero 
at  another  table.  He  had  given  away  the  bride,  and  was 
cheerfully  taking  part  in  the  banquet. 

Livia's  second  son,  Drusus  Nero,  was  born  three  months 
after  her  marriage,  and  was  sent  by  Octavian  to  Nero's 
house.  Nero  died  soon  afterwards,  and  made  Octavian  the 
guardian  of  his  sons,  so  that  they  returned  to  the  care  of 
their  mother.  The  extreme  fondness  of  Octavian  for  the 
younger  boy  lends  no  colour  to  the  rumour  that  Drusus 
was  his  own  son.  The  probability  is  that  Octavian,  in  his 
impetuous  way,  married  Livia  as  soon  as  his  fancy  rested 
on  her.  The  accepted  busts  of  Drusus  do  not  give  any 
support  to  the  calumny  that  Octavian  was  his  father.  He 
loved  both  the  boys,  and  assisted  in  educating  them,  in  their 
early  youth.  It  is  only  when  his  daughter  Julia  brings 
her  handsome  children  into  the  household  that  we  detect  a 
beginning  of  an  estrangement  between  him  and  his  suc- 
cessor, Tiberius. 

The  household  in  which  these  first  seeds  of  tragedy 
slowly  germinated  was,  in  the  year  38  B.C.,  one  of  great 
simplicity  and  sobriety.  They  lived  in  the  comparatively 
small  house  in  which  Octavian  had  been  born,  and  Livia 
adopted  his  plain  ways  with  ease  and  dignity.  In  that  age 
of  deadly  luxury,  when  the  veins  of  Rome  were  swollen 
with  the  first  flush  of  parasitic  wealth,  Octavian  and  Livia 
were  content  with  a  prudent  adaptation  of  the  old  Roman 
ideal  to  the  new  age.  The  noble  guests  whom  Octavian 
brought  to  his  table  found  that  his  simple  taste  shrank,  not 
only  from  the  peacocks'  bfains  and  nightingales'  tongues 
which  were  served  in  their  own  more  sumptuous  banquets, 
but  even    from   the    pheasant,   the   boar,   and    the    other 


i6  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

ordinary  luxuries  of  a  patrician  dinner.  Rough  bread, 
cream  cheese,  fish,  and  common  fruit  composed  his  cus- 
tomary meal.  Often  was  he  seen,  as  he  came  home  in  his 
litter  from  some  fatiguing  public  business,  such  as  the 
administration  of  justice,  to  munch  a  little  bread  and  fruit, 
like  some  humble  countryman.  Of  wine  he  drank  little, 
and  he  never  adopted  the  enervating  nightly  carousal  which 
was  draining  away  the  strength  of  Rome.  While  wealthy 
senators  and  knights  prolonged  the  hours  of  entertainment 
after  the  evening  meal,  and  hired  sinuous  Syrian  dancing 
girls  and  nude  bejewelled  boys  and  salacious  mimes  to  fire 
the  dull  eyes  of  their  guests,  as  they  lay  back,  sated,  on 
the  couches  of  silk  and  roses,  under  fine  showers  of 
perfume  from  the  roof,  sipping  choice  wine  cooled  with  the 
snow  of  the  Atlas  or  the  Alps,  Octavian  withdrew  to  his 
study,  after  a  frugal  supper,  to  write  his  diary,  dictate  his 
generous  correspondence,  and  enjoy  the  poets  who  were 
inaugurating  the  golden  age  of  Latin  letters.  When  there 
were  guests,  he  provided  fitting  dishes  and  music  for  them, 
but  often  retired  to  his  study  when  the  meal  was  over. 
After  seven  hours*  sleep  in  the  most  modest  of  chambers  he 
was  ready  to  resume  his  daily  round. 

Since  Octavian  retained  these  sober  habits  to  the  end  of 
his  life,  years  after  they  could  have  had  any  diplomatic  aim, 
it  is  remarkable  that  so  many  writers  have  regarded  them 
as  an  artful  screen  of  his  ambition.  Nor  can  we  think 
differently  of  Livia.  If  Octavian  presents  a  healthy  con- 
trast to  the  sordid  sensuality  of  some  of  his  successors,  his 
wife  contrasts  no  less  luminously  with  later  Empresses,  and 
is  no  less  unjustly  accused  of  cunning.  How  far  she 
developed  ambition  in  later  years  we  shall  consider  later. 
In  the  fullness  of  his  manhood,  at  least,  she  was  content  to 
be  the  wife  of  Octavian.  With  her  own  hands  she  helped 
to  spin,  weave,  and  sew  his  everyday  garments.  She 
carefully  reared  her  two  boys,  tended  the  somewhat 
delicate  health  of  Octavian,  and  cultivated  that  nice  degree 
of  affability  which  kept  her  husband  affectionate  and  the 
husbands  of  other  noble  dames  respectful.    Dio  would  have 


THE  MAKING   OF  AN  EMPRESS  17 

us  believe  that  her  most  useful  quality  was  her  willingness 
to  overlook  the  genial  irregularities  of  Octavian ;  but  Dio 
betrays  an  excessive  eagerness  to  detect  frailties  in  his 
heroes  and  heroines.  We  have  no  serious  evidence  that 
Octavian  continued  the  loose  ways  of  his  youth  after  he 
married  Livia.  The  plainest  and  soundest  reading  of  the 
chronicle  is  that  they  lived  happily,  and  retained  a  great 
affection  for  each  other,  even  when  fate  began  to  rain  its 
blows  on  their  ill-starred  house. 

But  before  we  reach  those  tragic  days,  we  have  to 
consider  briefly  the  years  in  which  Octavian  established 
his  power.  His  first  step  after  his  marriage  with  Livia 
was  to  destroy  the  power  of  the  Pompeians.  Livia 
followed  the  struggle  anxiously  from  her  country  villa  a 
few  miles  from  Rome.  Sextus  Pompeius  was  experienced 
in  naval  warfare,  and,  as  repeated  messages  came  of  blunder 
and  defeat  on  the  part  of  Octavian's  forces,  she  trembled 
with  alarm.  Her  confidence  was  restored  by  one  of  the 
abundant  miracles  of  the  time.  An  eagle  one  day  swooped 
down  on  a  chicken  which  had  just  picked  up  a  sprig  of 
laurel  in  the  farm-yard.  The  eagle  clumsily  dropped  the 
chicken,  with  the  laurel,  near  Livia,  and  so  plain  an  omen 
could  not  be  misinterpreted.  Rumour  soon  had  it  that 
the  eagle  had  laid  the  laurel-bearing  chick  gently  at  Livia's 
feet.  As  in  all  such  cases,  the  sceptic  of  a  later  generation 
was  silenced  with  material  proof.  The  chicken  became  the 
mother  of  a  brood  which  for  many  years  spread  the  repute 
of  the  village  through  southern  Italy;  the  sprig  of  laurel 
became  a  tree,  and  in  time  furnished  the  auspicious  twigs 
of  which  the  crowns  of  triumphing  generals  were  woven. 

Whether  it  was  by  the  will  of  Jupiter,  or  by  the  rein- 
forcement of  a  hundred  and  fifty  ships  which  he  received 
from  Antony,  Octavian  did  eventually  win,  and,  to  the 
delight  of  Rome,  cleared  the  route  by  which  the  corn-ships 
came  from  Africa.  Only  two  men  now  remained  between 
Octavian  and  supreme  power — the  two  who  formed  with 
him  the  Triumvirate  which  ruled  the  Republic.  The  first, 
Lepidus,  was  soon  convicted  of  maladministration  in  his 


i8  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

African  province,  and  was  transferred  to  the  innocent 
duties  of  the  pontificate,  under  Octavian's  eyes,  at  Rome. 
Octavian  added  the  province  of  Africa  to  his  half  of  the 
Roman  world,  and  found  himself  in  command  of  forty-five 
legions  and  six  hundred  vessels.  Fresh  honours  were 
awarded  him  by  the  Senate,  in  which  his  devoted  friend 
Maecenas,  who  foresaw  the  advantage  to  Rome  of  his 
rule,  was  working  for  him. 

Then  Octavian  entered  on  his  final  conflict  with  Mark 
Antony.  I  have  already  protested  against  the  plausible 
view  that  Octavian  was  pursuing  a  definite  ambition  under 
all  his  appearance  of  simplicity.  Circumstances  conspired 
first  to  give  him  power,  and  then  to  give  him  the  appear- 
ance of  a  thirst  for  it.  He  really  did  not  destroy  Antony, 
however  :  Antony  destroyed  himself.  The  apology  that 
has  been  made  for  Cleopatra  in  recent  times  only  enhances 
Antony's  guilt.  It  is  said  that  she  used  all  that  elusive 
fascination  of  her  person,  of  which  ancient  writers  find 
it  difficult  to  convey  an  impression,  all  her  wealth  and 
her  wit,  only  to  benumb  the  hand  that  Rome  stretched 
out  to  seize  her  beloved  land.  The  theory  is  not  in  the 
least  inconsistent  with  the  facts,  and  it  is  more  pleasant 
to  believe  that  the  last  representative  of  the  great  free 
womanhood  of  ancient  Egypt  sacrificed  her  person  and  her 
wealth  on  the  altar  of  patriotism  than  that  her  dalliance 
with  Antony  was  but  a  languorous  and  selfish  indulgence 
in  an  hour  of  national  peril.  But  if  it  be  true  that  Cleopatra 
was  the  last  Egyptian  patriot,  Antony  was  all  the  more 
clearly  a  traitor  to  Rome.  The  quarrel  does  not  concern 
us.  Octavian  induced  the  Senate  to  make  war  on  Egypt ; 
and  we  can  well  believe  that  when,  in  a  herald's  garb,  he 
read  the  declaration  of  war  at  the  door  of  the  temple  of 
Bellona,  the  thought  of  his  despised  sister  added  warmth 
to  his  phrases.  The  pale,  patient  face  and  outraged  virtue 
of  Octavia  daily  branded  Antony  afresh  in  the  eyes  of 
Rome. 

Livia  and  Antonia  followed  the  swift  course  of  the  last 
struggle  from  Rome.     They  heard  of  the  meeting  of  the 


THE  MAKING  OF  AN   EMPRESS  19 

fleets  off  Actium,  the  victorious  swoop  of  Octavian,  the 
flight  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra.  What  followed  would 
hardly  be  known  to  Livia.  It  is  said  that  Cleopatra 
offered  to  betray  Antony  to  Octavian,  and  such  an  offer 
is  in  entire  harmony  with  the  patriotic  theory  of  her 
conduct.  While  his  able  but  ill-regulated  rival,  deserted 
by  his  forces,  drew  near  the  edge  of  the  abyss,  Octavian 
visited  Cleopatra  in  her  palace.  Her  seductive  form  was 
displayed  on  a  silken  couch,  and  from  the  slit-like  eyes  the 
dangerous  fire  caressed  the  young  conqueror.  Cleopatra 
probably  relied  on  Octavian's  weakness,  but  his  sensuous 
impulses  were  held  in  check  by  a  harder  thought.  He 
felt  that  he  must  have  this  glorious  creature  to  adorn  his 
triumph  at  Rome.  Cleopatra  saw  that  she  had  failed,  and 
she  went  sadly,  with  a  last  dignity,  before  the  throne  of 
Osiris.  Octavian  returned  to  Rome  with  the  immense 
treasures  of  Egypt,  to  enjoy  the  triumph  1  have  already 
described  and  to  await  the  purple. 

The  domestic  life  of  Livia  and  Octavian  lost  none  of  its 
plainness  after  the  attainment  of  supreme  power.  Some 
time  after  the  Senate  had  (27  B.C.)  strengthened  his  position 
by  inventing  for  him  the  title  of  "  Augustus  " — a  title  by 
which  he  is  generally,  but  improperly,  described  in  history 
after  that  date^ — he  removed  from  the  small  house  which 
his  father  had  left  him  to  a  larger  mansion,  built  by  the 
orator  Hortensius,  on  the  Palatine.  This  was  burned 
down  in  the  year  6  B.C.,  and  the  citizens  built  a  new 
palace  for  Livia  and  Octavian  by  public  subscription.  At 
the  Emperor's  command  the  contribution  of  each  was 
limited  to  one  denarius.  If  we  may  trust  the  archaeo- 
logists, it  was  modest  in  size,  but  of  admirable  taste, 
especially  in  the  marble  lining  of  its  interior.  On  one 
side  it  looked  down,  over  the  steep  slope  of  the  hill,  on  the 
colonnaded  space,  the  Forum,  in  which  the  life  of  Rome 
centred.    On  the  other  side  it  faced  a  group  of  public 

'  Improperly,  because  it  is  uot  a  distinctive  name,  but  common  to  the 
emperors.  Livia  and  Octavia  received  the  title  of  "Augusta"  a  few  years 
later,  yet  even  Livia  is  rarely  known  by  it. 


20  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

buildings,  raised  by  Octavian,  which  impressed  the  citizens 
with  his  liberality  in  the  public  service.  The  splendid 
temple  of  Apollo,  the  public  library  and  other  buildings, 
adorned  with  the  most  exquisite  works  of  art  that  his 
provincial  expeditions  had  brought  to  Rome,  stood  in  fine 
contrast  to  his  own  plain  mansion,  of  which  the  proudest 
decoration  was  the  faded  wreath  over  the  door  —  the 
Victoria  Cross  of  the  Roman  world — which  bore  witness 
that  he  had  saved  the  life  of  a  citizen. 

In  this  modest  palace  Livia  reared  her  two  children  in 
the  finer  traditions  of  the  old  Republic,  while  Octavian 
made  the  long  journeys  into  the  provinces  which  filled 
many  years  after  his  attainment  of  power.  Livia  was  no 
narrow  conservative.  She  took  her  full  share  in  the  decent 
distractions  of  patrician  life,  and,  Uke  many  other  noble 
women  of  the  period,  she  built  temples  and  other  edifices 
of  more  obvious  usefulness  to  the  public.  A  provincial 
town  took  the  name  Liviada  in  her  honour.  We  have  many 
proofs  that  she  was  consulted  on  public  affairs  by  Octavian, 
and  exercised  a  discreet  and  beneficent  influence  on  him.' 
One  of  the  anecdotes  collected  by  later  writers  tells  that 
she  one  day  met  a  group  of  naked  men  on  the  road.  It 
is  likely  that  they  were  innocent  workers  or  soldiers  in 
the  heat,  and  not  the  "band  of  lascivious  nobles"  which 
prurient  writers  have  made  them  out  to  be.  However, 
Octavian  impetuously  demanded  their  heads  when  she 
told  him,  and  Livia  saved  them  with  the  remark  that,  '*  in 
the  eyes  of  a  decent  woman  they  were  no  more  offensive 
than  a  group  of  statues."  On  another  occasion  she  dis- 
suaded Octavian  from  executing  a  young  noble  for  con- 
spiracy. At  her  suggestion  the  noble  was  brought  to  the 
Emperor's  private  room.  When,  instead  of  the  merited 
sentence  of  death,  Cinna  received  only  a  kindly  admonition, 
an  off'er  of  Octavian's  friendship,  and  further  promotion, 
he  was  completely  disarmed  and  won.  We  shall  see  further 
proof  that  the  wise  and  humane  counsels  of  Livia  con- 
tributed not  a  little  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  which  Rome 
enjoyed  in  its  golden  age. 


LIVIA   AS  CERES 

STATUE   IN    THE   LOUVRE 


THE  MAKING   OF  AN  EMPRESS  21 

For  it  was  in  truth  an  age  of  gold  in  comparison  with 
the  previous  hundred  years  and  the  centuries  to  come. 
The  flames  of  civil  war  had  scorched  the  Republic  time 
after  time.  The  best  soldiers  of  Rome  were  dying  out ; 
the  best  leaders  were  perishing  in  an  ignoble  contest  of 
ambitions.  Corruption  spread,  like  a  cancerous  growth, 
through  all  ranks  of  the  citizens  of  Rome,  and  far  into  the 
provinces.  The  white-robed  {candidatt)  seekers  of  office  in 
the  city  now  relied  on  the  purchase  of  votes  by  expert  and 
recognized  agents.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  citizens 
lived  parasitically  on  the  State,  or  on  the  wealthy  men  to 
whom  they  sold  their  votes,  and  from  whom  they  had  free 
food  and  free  entertainments.  The  loathsome  spectacle 
was  seen  of  vast  crowds  of  strong  idle  men,  boasting  of 
their  dignity  as  citizens  of  Rome,  pressing  to  the  appointed 
steps  for  their  daily  doles  of  corn.  Large  numbers  of  them 
could  hardly  earn  an  occasional  coin  to  buy  a  cup  of  wine, 
a  game  of  dice,  or  a  visit  to  the  lupanaria  in  the  Subura. 
By  means  of  other  agents  the  wealthy  refilled  their  coffers 
by  extortion  in  the  provinces,  and  paraded  at  Rome  a 
luxury  that  was  often  as  puerile  as  it  was  criminal.  Rome, 
once  so  sober  and  virile,  now  shone  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  like  some  parasitic  flower,  of  deadly  beauty,  on  the 
face  of  a  forest. 

No  man,  perhaps,  could  have  saved  Rome  from  destruc- 
tion, but  Octavian  did  much  to  clear  its  veins  of  the  poison, 
and  its  chronicle  would  have  run  very  differently  if  he  had 
not  been  succeeded  by  a  Caligula,  a  Claudius,  and  a  Nero. 
He  chastised  injustice  in  the  provinces,  purified  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  at  Rome,  fought  against  the  growing 
practices  of  artificial  sterility  and  artificial  vice,  and  genially 
pressed  on  the  senators  his  own  ideal  of  sober  public 
service.  From  his  mansion  on  the  Palatine  he  looked 
down  without  remorse  on  the  idle  chatterers  in  the  Forum, 
from  whom  he  had  withdrawn  the  power,  of  which  they 
still  boasted,  of  ruling  their  spreading  empire.  Nor  were 
there  many,  amongst  those  who  looked  up  to  his  unpre- 
tentious palace  on  the  edge  of  the  cliff,  who  did  not  feel 


22  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

that  they  had  gained  by  the  sale  of  their  tarnished  demo- 
cracy. There  was  more  than  literal  truth  in  Octavian's 
boast  that  he  had  found  Rome  a  city  of  brick,  and  had  left 
it  a  city  of  marble. 

Yet  all  the  augurs  and  soothsayers  of  Rome  failed  to 
see  the  swift  and  terrible  issue  that  would  come  of  this 
seemingly  happy  change.  Corrupt  and  repellent  as  demo- 
cracy had  become,  monarchy  was  presently  to  exhibit 
spectacles  which  would  surpass  all  the  horrors  of  its  civil 
wars,  and  outshame  the  sordid  reaches  of  its  avarice.  The 
new  race  of  rulers  was  to  descend  so  low  as  to  use  its 
imperial  power  to  shatter  what  remained  of  old  Roman 
virtue,  and  to  embellish  vice  with  its  richest  awards. 
From  the  sobriety  and  public  spirit  of  Octavian  we  pass 
quickly  to  the  sombre  melancholy  of  Tiberius,  the  wanton 
brutality  of  Caligula,  the  impotent  sensuality  of  Claudius, 
the  mincing  folly  of  Nero,  and  the  alternating  gluttony  and 
cruelty  of  Domitian,  before  we  come  to  the  second  honest 
effort  to  avert  the  fate  of  Rome.  From  the  genial  virtue 
of  Livia  we  are  led  to  contemplate  the  dissolute  gaieties  of 
Julia,  the  cold  ambition  of  Agrippina,  the  robust  vulgarity 
of  Caesonia,  the  infectious  vice  of  Messalina,  and  the  insipid 
frippery  of  Poppaea.  Had  there  been  one  syllable  of  truth 
in  the  divine  messages  which  augurs  and  Chaldaeans  saw 
in  every  movement  of  nature,  not  even  the  beneficent  rule 
of  Octavian  would  have  lured  men  to  sacrifice  even  the 
effigy  of  power  that  remained  to  them,  and  that  they  had 
lightly  sold  for  a  measure  of  corn  and  the  bloody  orgies  of 
the  amphitheatre. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  END   OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE 

IN  tracing  the  further  career  of  Livia  we  enter  upon 
the  opening  acts  of  the  tragedy  of  the  Caesars,  and 
we  have  to  consider  carefully  if  there  be  any  truth 
in  the  charge  that  Livia  herself  initiated  the  long  series 
of  murders  that  now  make  a  trail  of  blood  over  the  annals 
of  Rome.  With  the  coming  of  the  Empire  we  more  rarely 
find  legion  pitted  against  legion  in  the  horrors  of  civil 
war,  but  we  have  nerveless  ambition  stooping  to  the 
despicable  aid  of  the  poisoner,  autocracy  paralysing  the 
best  of  the  nobility  with  its  murderous  suspicions,  and 
folly  growing  more  foolish  with  the  increasing  splendour 
of  the  imperial  house.  We  already  know  that  the  germs 
of  this  disease  were  found  in  the  quiet  home  of  Livia 
and  Octavian  on  the  Palatine.  Scribonia  had  received 
her  letter  of  divorce  a  few  days  after  the  birth  of  her 
daughter  Julia.  As  Livia  bore  no  direct  heir  to  the 
Emperor,  while  Julia  became  the  mother  of  many  children, 
we  have  at  once  the  promise  of  a  dramatic  struggle  for  the 
succession.  When  we  further  learn  that  the  strain  of 
Imperial  blood,  which  takes  its  rise  in  Julia,  is  thickly 
tainted  with  disease,  we  are  prepared  for  a  bloody  and 
unscrupulous  conflict.  And  when  we  reflect  that  on  this 
unstable  pivot  the  vast  Empire  will  turn  for  many  genera- 
tions, we  begin  to  understand  the  larger  tragedy  of  the 
fall  of  Rome. 

Let  us  first  glance  at  the  interior  of  the  modest  house- 
hold on  the  Palatine.     Besides  Livia  and  Octavian,  with 

23 


24  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

whom  we  are  now  familiar,  there  is  Octavia,  sister  of 
the  Emperor  and  divorced  wife  of  Marlt  Antony,  a  gentle 
lady  with  the  matronly  virtues  of  the  time  when  a  Roman 
could  slay  his  wife  or  daughter  for  irregular  conduct. 
With  her  were  her  children,  Marcellus  and  Marcella,  of 
whom  we  shall  hear  much.  Then  there  were  Livia's  two 
sons— the  elder,  Tiberius,  a  tall,  silent,  moody  youth,  with 
little  care  to  please ;  the  younger,  Drusus,  a  handsome, 
buoyant,  fair-headed  boy,  threatening  the  elder's  birthright. 
Octavian  closely  watched  the  education  of  the  boys.  He 
taught  them  to  write  on  the  wax-faced  tablets  in  the  fine 
script  on  which  he  prided  himself,  kept  them  beside  him 
at  table,  and  drove  them  in  his  chariot  about  public 
business. 

But  the  most  interesting  and  fateful  figure  in  the  group 
was  Julia.  Octavian  had  removed  her  at  an  early  age 
from  the  care  of  Scribonia,  and  adopted  her  in  the  palace. 
She  learned  to  spin  and  weave,  and  helped  to  make  the 
garments  of  the  family,  under  the  severe  eyes  of  Livia 
and  Octavia.  The  Emperor  was  charmed  with  the  pretty 
and  lively  girl,  and  would  make  a  second  Livia  of  her. 
Knowing  well,  if  only  from  his  own  youth,  the  vice  and 
folly  that  abounded  in  those  mansions  on  the  hills  of  Rome, 
and  roared  in  its  dimly-lighted  valleys  by  night,  he  kept 
her  apart.  None  of  the  young  fops  who  drove  their 
chariots  madly  out  by  the  Flaminian  Gate,  and  sipped 
their  wine  after  supper  to  the  prurient  jokes  of  mimes, 
were  suffered  to  approach  her.  And,  not  for  the  first 
or  last  time  in  history,  the  veiling  of  the  young  eyes  had 
an  effect  quite  contrary  to  that  intended.  A  Roman  girl 
became  a  woman  at  fourteen,  a  mother  at  fifteen.  At 
that  early  age,  in  the  year  25  b.c,  Julia  was  married  to 
her  cousin  Marcellus,  who  was  then  seventeen.  Marcellus 
was  so  clearly  a  possible  successor  to  the  throne  that 
courtiers  hung  about  him,  and  taught  him  the  art  of 
princely  living.  The  doors  of  the  hidden  world  were 
opened,  and  the  tender  eyes  of  Julia  were  dazed. 

The  authorities  are   careless   in   chronology,  and   we 


THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE      25 

may  decline  to  believe  that  Julia  at  once  entered  on  the 
riotous  ways  which  led  her  to  the  abyss.  Her  marriage 
concerns  us  in  a  very  different  respect.  All  the  writers 
who  adopt  the  view  that  Livia  was  a  hard  and  un- 
scrupulous woman — a  view  that  Tacitus  must  have  taken 
from  the  memoirs  of  her  rival's  granddaughter,  the  Empress 
Agrippina,  which  were  made  public  in  his  time — consider 
that  this  marriage  of  Julia  and  Marcellus  marks  the 
beginning  of  her  career  of  crime.  She  is  supposed  to 
have  been  alarmed  at  the  marriage  of  two  direct  descend- 
ants of  Caesar,  seeing  that  she  herself  had  no  child  by 
Octavian.  Most  certainly  she  was  ambitious  for  her  elder 
son.  The  boy  whom  she  had  clasped  to  her  breast,  when 
she  fled  along  the  roads  of  Campania  and  through  the 
burning  forests  of  Greece,  was  now  a  clever  and  studious 
youth,  and  she  wished  Octavian  to  adopt  him.  Un- 
fortunately, Tiberius  was  of  a  moody  and  solitary  nature, 
and  was  easily  displaced  in  Octavian's  affection  by  the 
handsome  and  popular  Marcellus  and  the  beautiful  and 
witty  Julia. 

The  first  cloud  appeared  in  the  year  23  b.c.  Octavian 
fell  seriously  ill,  and  Livia's  hope  of  securing  the  succession 
for  her  son  was  troubled  by  two  formidable  competitors. 
One  was  Marcellus,  the  other  was  Octavian's  friend  and 
ablest  general,  M.  V.  Agrippa.  He  was  of  poor  origin, 
but  of  commanding  ability  and  character,  and  was  suspected 
of  entertaining  a  design  to  restore  the  Republic.  He  was 
married  to  Marcella,  and  had  some  contempt  for  the  spoiled 
boy,  her  brother  Marcellus — a  contempt  which  Marcellus 
repaid  with  petulance  and  rancour.  Octavian  recovered, 
sent  Agrippa  on  an  important  errand  to  the  East,  and 
made  Marcellus  iEdile  of  the  city.  Marcellus  was  winning, 
the  eager  observers  thought,  when  suddenly  he  fell  seriously 
ill  and  died.  The  death  was  so  opportune  for  Tiberius 
that  we  cannot  wonder  that  a  faint  whisper  of  poison  went 
through  Rome  when  his  ashes  were  laid  in  the  lofty  marble 
tower  that  Octavian  had  built  in  the  meadows  by  the  Tiber. 
But  we  need  not  linger  over  this  first  charge  against  Livia. 


26  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Even  Dio,  who  is  no  sceptic  in  regard  to  rumours  which 
defame  Empresses,  hesitates  to  press  on  us  so  airy  and 
improbable  a  myth.  It  was  a  hot  and  pestilential  summer, 
and  Marcellus  seems  to  have  contracted  fever  by  remain- 
ing too  long  at  his  post,  before  going  to  Baiae  on  the 
coast. 

The  death  of  Marcellus,  far  from  promoting  the  cause 
of  Tiberius,  brought  a  more  formidable  obstacle  in  his 
way.  Octavian  sent  for  Agrippa,  and  directed  him  to 
divorce  Marcella  and  wed  Julia.  The  general,  who  was 
in  his  forty-second  year,  thought  it  immaterial  which  of 
the  two  young  princesses  shared  his  bed,  and  Octavia 
consented  to  the  divorce  of  her  daughter — as  some  con- 
jecture, to  thwart  Livia's  design.  To  the  delight  of 
Octavian  the  union  of  robust  manhood  and  amorous  young 
womanhood  was  fruitful.  During  the  ten  years  of  their 
marriage  Julia  gave  birth  to  three  sons  and  two  daughters. 
Happily  unconscious  of  the  tragedies  which  were  to  close 
the  careers  of  these  children  in  his  own  lifetime,  Octavian 
welcomed  them  with  great  enthusiasm.  During  his  whole 
reign  he  was  engaged  in  a  futile  effort  to  induce  or  compel 
the  better  families  of  Rome  to  take  a  larger  share  in  the 
peopling  of  the  Empire.  When  he  penalized  celibacy, 
they  defeated  him  by  contracting  marriages  with  the 
intention  of  seeking  an  immediate  divorce.  When  he 
made  adultery  a  public  crime,  there  were  noblewomen 
— few  in  number,  it  is  true  ;  the  facts  are  often  exaggerated 
— who  enrolled  themselves  on  the  list  of  shame,  and  noble- 
men who  took  on  the  degrading  rank  of  gladiators,  in 
order  to  escape  the  penalties.  He  created  a  guild  of 
honour  for  the  mothers  of  at  least  three  children ;  but  the 
distinction  seemed  to  the  ladies  of  Rome  to  be  an  in- 
adequate reward  for  so  onerous  an  accomplishment,  and 
they  scoffed  when  Livia  was  enrolled  in  the  guild,  though 
the  only  child  she  had  conceived  of  Octavian  had  never 
seen  the  light. 

Far  greater,  however,  was  the  amusement  of  Rome 
when  Octavian   held  up  Julia  as  a  model  of  maternity. 


THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE      27 

and  ostentatiously  fondled  her  babies  in  public.  A  coarse 
and  witty  reply  that  she  is  said  to  have  made,  when  some 
one  asked  her  how  it  was  that  all  her  children  so  closely 
resembled  her  husband,  was  then  circulated  in  Roman 
society,  and  is  preserved  in  Macrobius.^  Beautiful,  lively, 
and  cultivated,  the  young  girl  had  exchanged  with  delight 
the  dull  homeliness  of  her  father's  mansion  for  the  rose- 
crowned  banquets  of  her  new  world.  Her  marriage  with 
Agrippa  restrained  her  gaiety  for  a  time,  but  her  husband 
was  often  summoned  to  distant  provinces,  and  she  was 
left  to  her  dissolute  friends.  Octavian  was  curiously 
blind  to  her  conduct,  but  when  Agrippa  was  compelled 
to  undertake  a  lengthy  mission  in  the  East,  he  ordered 
Julia  to  accompany  him.  The  journey  would  not  im- 
probably foster  her  vicious  tendencies.  There  is  truth 
in  the  old  adage  that  all  light  came  to  Europe  from  the 
East,  but  it  is  hardly  less  true  that  darkness  came  to 
Rome  from  the  East.  Julia  would  not  be  ignorant  how 
the  ancient  Roman  puritanism  had  been  corrupted  by  the 
introduction  of  Eastern  habits  and  types — the  poisoner, 
the  Chaldaean  astrologer,  the  Syrian  dancer,  the  eunuch, 
the  cultivated  Greek  slave,  the  priests  of  orgiastic  Eastern 
cults.  A  mind  like  hers  would  seek  to  penetrate  the  depths 
from  which  these  types  had  emerged.  In  Greece  she 
would  find  the  remains  of  its  perfumed  vices  lingering 
at  the  foot  of  its  decaying  monuments.  In  Antioch  there 
would  not  be  wanting  freedwomen  to  gratify  her  curiosity 
in  regard  to  its  unnatural  excesses  and  the  world-famed 
license  of  its  groves.  In  Judaea  she  was  long  and  splen- 
didly entertained  at  the  court  of  Herod,  a  monarch  with 
ten  wives  and  concubines  innumerable. 

They  returned  to  Rome  in  the  year  13,  and  in  the 
following  year  Agrippa  died  of  gout,  and  Julia  was 
free.  One  of  the  most  surprising  features  of  her  wild 
career — one  that  would  make  us  hesitate  to  admit 
the  charges  against  her,  if  hesitation  were  possible — 
is  that  Livia  was  either  ignorant  of  her  more  serious 
'  "  Non  nisi  plena  nave  tollo  vectorem." 


38  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

misdeeds,  or  unable  to  convince  Octavian  of  them.  Livia 
would  hardly  spare  her,  as  Julia  was  inflaming  Octavian's 
dislike  for  Tiberius.  Refined,  sensitive,  and  studious, 
the  young  man  avoided  the  boisterous  amusements  in 
which  other  young  patricians  spent  their  ample  leisure, 
and  his  cold  melancholy  made  him  distasteful  to  them. 
One  of  the  Roman  writers  would  have  us  believe  that 
Julia  made  love  to  him  during  the  life  of  Agrippa,  and 
that  she  incited  Octavian  against  him  in  revenge  for  his 
rejection  of  her  advances.  The  story  is  improbable.  We 
need  only  suppose  that  Julia,  in  speaking  of  Tiberius, 
used  the  disdainful  language  which  was  common  to  her 
friends.  Neither  Livia  nor  Tiberius  seems  to  have 
attempted  to  open  the  Emperor's  eyes  to  Julia's  conduct. 
Octavian  disliked  her  luxurious  ways,  but  was  blind  to 
her  vices,  though  the  names  of  her  lovers  were  on  the 
lips  of  all.  One  day  Octavian  scolded  her  for  having  a 
crowd  of  fast  young  nobles  about  her,  and  commended 
to  her  the  staid  example  of  Livia.  She  disarmed  him 
with  the  laughing  reply  that,  when  she  was  old,  her 
companions  would  be  as  old  as  those  of  the  Empress. 
One  writer  says  that  Octavian  compelled  her  to  give  up 
a  too  sumptuous  palace  which  she  occupied.  One  is 
more  disposed  to  believe  the  story  that,  when  he  remon- 
strated with  her  for  her  luxurious  ways,  she  replied : 
'  My  father  may  forget  that  he  is  Caesar,  but  I  cannot 
forget  that  I  am  Caesar's  daughter." 

In  spite  of  their  mutual  aversion  Octavian  now  ordered 
Tiberius  to  marry  her.  He  was  already  married  to 
Vipsania,  the  virtuous  and  affectionate  daughter  of  Agrippa, 
and  this  enforced  separation  from  one  whom  he  loved 
with  an  ardour  that  was  fading  from  Roman  marriage, 
and  union  with  one  who  contrasted  with  Vipsania  as  the 
wild  flaming  poppy  contrasts  with  the  lily,  further  soured 
and  embittered  him.  We  may  dismiss  in  a  very  few 
words  his  relations  with  the  woman  who  ought  to  have 
been  the  second  Empress  of  Rome.  After  a  few  years 
spent,  as  a  rule,  in  distant  frontier  wars,  he  returned  to 


JULIA 

BUST    IN    THE    MUSEUM    CHIARAMONTI 


THE   END  OF  THE   GOLDEN   AGE  29 

Rome  in  the  year  6  b.c.,  to  find  that  his  wife  had  passed 
the  last  bounds  of  decency  and  Octavian  was  as  blind 
as  ever.  In  intense  disgust,  and  in  spite  of  his  mother's 
entreaties,  he  begged  the  Emperor's  permission  to  spend 
some  years  in  literary  and  scientific  studies  at  Rhodes. 
Not  daring  to  open  the  eyes  of  Octavian  to  the  true 
character  of  his  daughter,  he  had  to  bow  to  his  anger 
and  disdain,  and  seek  consolation  in  the  calm  mysteries 
of  the  planets  and  the  fine  sentiments  of  Greek  tragedians. 

Julia  now  cast  aside  the  last  traces  of  restraint.  A 
half-dozen  of  the  young  nobles  of  Rome  are  associated 
with  her  in  the  chronicles,  and,  gossipy  and  unreliable  as 
the  records  are,  in  this  case  the  issue  of  the  story  disposes 
us  to  believe  the  charges.  Round  such  a  repute  as  hers 
legends  were  bound  to  grow,  and  the  conscientious  bio- 
grapher must  be  reserved  in  giving  details.  Dio  tells  us, 
for  instance,  that  she  expected  her  lovers  to  put  crowns, 
for  each  success  she  permitted  them  to  attain,  at  the  foot 
of  the  statue  of  Marsyas — a  public  statue,  at  the  feet  of 
which  Roman  lawyers  were  wont  to  place  a  crown  when 
they  had  won  a  case.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  certain 
that  in  the  nightly  dissipation  of  Rome,  when  plebeian 
offenders  sought  the  darkness  of  the  Milvian  Bridge,  or 
wantoned  in  the  taverns  and  brothels  of  the  Subura, 
Julia's  party  was  one  of  the  boldest  and  most  conspicuous. 
Not  content  with  the  riotous  supper,  which  it  was  now 
the  fashion  to  prolong  by  lamp-light,  in  perfumed  cham- 
bers, until  late  hours  of  the  night,  Julia  and  her  friends 
went  out  into  the  streets,  and  caroused  in  the  very 
tribunal  in  the  Forum — the  Rostra,  a  platform  decorated 
with  the  prows  of  captured  vessels — from  which  her 
father  made  known  his  Imperial  decisions.^ 

'  Writers  often  convey  the  impression  that  Julia  indulged  even  her 
most  vicious  inclinations  in  the  Rostra,  but  Dio  merely  speaks  of  "revel- 
ling '  and  "carousing":  «<rrc  koi  tv  rrj  ayopa  koi  in'  avrov  yc  rov  firjfiaTos 
KwfidCfiv  vvKT6is  Koi  avfinivfiv.  The  emptying  of  a  cup  of  Falernian  wine  in 
the  Rostra,  on  some  occasion  of  especial  devilry  or  intoxication,  may  be 
all  that  is  meant. 


30  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

The  thunder  of  the  Imperial  anger  scattered  this  licen- 
tious band  some  time  in  the  second  year  before  Christ. 
In  the  earlier  part  of  the  year  Octavian  had  entertained 
Rome  with  one  of  the  thrilling  spectacles  which  he  often 
provided.  To  celebrate  the  dedication  of  a  new  temple 
of  Mars,  which  he  had  built,  he  had  the  Flaminian  Circus 
flooded,  gave  the  people  a  mock  naval  battle,  and  had 
thirteen  crocodiles  slain  by  the  gladiators.  Julia  had 
hoodwinked  the  Emperor  so  long  that  she  and  her  friends 
seem  to  have  abandoned  all  restraint,  and  their  adventures 
came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Emperor. 

The  charges  against  Julia  must  have  been  beyond 
cavil,  since  Octavian,  who  loved  her  deeply,  at  once 
yielded  her  to  the  course  of  justice.  A  charge  of  con- 
spiracy was  made  out  against  her  companions.  One  of 
the  young  nobles  killed  himself,  and  the  rest  were  banished. 
Julia  was  convicted  of  adultery— the  evil  that  her  father 
had  fought  for  ten  years — and  from  the  glitter  of  Rome 
she  was  roughly  conducted  to  the  barren  rock-island  of 
Pandateria  (Ponza),  in  the  Gulf  of  Gaeta.  In  that  narrow 
and  depressing  jail,  with  no  female  attendants,  no  wine 
and  no  finery,  accompanied  only  by  her  unhappy  mother, 
the  fascinating  young  princess  spent  five  years,  looking 
with  anguish  over  the  blue  water  toward  the  faint  out- 
line of  the  hills  of  Italy,  or  southward  toward  those  rose- 
strewn  waters  of  Baiae,  where  she  had  dreamed  away  so 
many  brilliant  summers.  Rome,  touched  with  pity  for 
the  stricken  woman,  implored  Octavian  to  forgive  her ; 
and  when  he  swore  that  fire  and  water  should  meet 
before  he  pardoned  her,  the  people  naively  flung  burning 
torches  into  the  Tiber.  Hearing,  after  a  few  years,  that 
there  was  a  plot  to  release  her,  Octavian  had  her  removed 
to  a  more  secure  prison  in  Calabria.  There  she  dragged 
out  her  miserable  life  until  her  father  died,  and  Tiberius 
came  to  the  throne.  When  he  in  turn  refused  to  release 
her,  she  sank  slowly  into  the  peace  of  death. 

There  is  no  charge  against  Livia  in  connexion  with 
this   tragic   fate   of   Julia,    but    another    possible   rival   of 


THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE      31 

Tiberius  had  disappeared  during  these  years,  and  there 
is  the  usual  vague  accusation  that  the  Empress  assisted 
the  action  of  nature.  Drusus,  her  younger  son,  died  in 
the  year  9  B.C.,  and  Livia  is  charged  with  sacrificing  him 
to  her  affection  for  her  elder  son.  The  charge  is  pre- 
posterous. Drusus  had,  it  is  true,  been  much  more 
popular  than  Tiberius  at  Rome.  His  genial  and  engaging 
manner  gave  him  a  great  advantage  over  the  retiring  and 
almost  sullen  Tiberius.  But  the  brothers  loved  each 
other  deeply,  and  when  Tiberius,  who  was  making  a  tour 
in  the  north  of  Gaul,  heard  that  Drusus  was  dangerously 
ill  in  Germany,  he  at  once  rode  four  hundred  miles  on 
horseback,  and  held  Drusus  in  his  arms  in  his  last  hour. 
Livia  was  at  Ticinum,  in  the  north  of  Italy,  with  Octavian 
when  the  news  reached  them.  That  either  Livia  or 
Tiberius — for  both  are  accused — should  have  in  any  way 
promoted  the  death  of  Drusus  is  a  frivolous  suggestion. 
The  epitomist  of  Livy,  Tacitus,  and  Suetonius,  describe 
the  death  as  natural.  Drusus  was  thrown  and  injured  by 
a  frantic  horse.  The  libel  that  his  death  was  in  some 
mysterious  way  accelerated  may  have  been  set  afoot  by 
his  partisans.  It  was  generally  believed  that  he  favoured 
a  restoration  of  the  Republic,  and  the  corrupt  officials 
who,  at  his  death,  lost  their  faint  hope  of  returning  to 
the  days  of  peculation  and  bribery,  may  have  begun  the 
charge.  No  evidence  is  offered  for  it.  Livia  and  Octavian 
accompanied  the  remains  to  Rome  with  great  sorrow. 
Seneca  says  that  the  Empress  was  so  distressed  that  she 
summoned  one  of  the  Stoic  philosophers  to  console  her. 
The  next  charge  against  Livia  requires  a  more  careful 
examination.  By  the  beginning  of  the  present  era,  when 
the  poor  health  of  Octavian  gave  occasion  for  many  specu- 
lations as  to  the  succession,  there  were  only  two  rivals  to 
the  chances  of  Tiberius.  These  were  the  elder  sons  of  Julia, 
and  Livia  must  have  reflected  gloomily  on  their  fortune. 
While  Tiberius  remained  in  retirement  at  Rhodes  the 
young  princes  were  idolized  by  Octavian  and  by  the  people. 
Tiberius  had  proposed  to  return  to  Rome  after  the  banish- 


33  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

ment  of  Julia,  but  Octavian  peevishly  told  him  to  remain 
in  Greece.  Every  astrologer  in  Rome  must  have  read  in 
the  planets  that  either  Caius  or  Lucius  was  born  to  the 
purple.  They  were  spoiled  by  Octavian,  enriched  with 
premature  honours,  and,  glittering  in  silver  trappings, 
appeared  in  the  spectacles  as  "  Princes  of  the  youth  of 
Rome."  Let  those  youths  be  removed  from  the  scene  by 
any  accident,  and  so  prurient  a  city  as  Rome  will  be  bound 
to  discover  some  insidious  action  on  the  part  of  Livia ;  and 
later  writers,  brooding  over  a  chronicle  in  which  ambition 
leads  freely  to  the  most  brutal  murders,  will  be  disposed  to 
believe  her  guilty. 

It  is  somewhat  surprising  to  find  more  recent  writers 
caught  by  the  fallacy.  We  are  not  puzzled  when  the 
scandal-loving  Serviez  opens  his  chapter  on  Livia  with  a 
glowing  enumeration  of  her  virtues,  adopts  nearly  every 
libel  against  her  as  he  proceeds,  and  closes  with  a  very 
dark  estimate  of  her  character ;  but  we  are  entitled  to 
expect  more  discrimination  in  Merivale.  Even  Mr.  Tarver, 
in  his  recent  "Tiberius  the  Tyrant"  (1902),  does  much 
injustice  to  the  mother  in  vindicating  the  son.  He  speaks 
of  her  as  "  hard,  avaricious,  and  a  lover  of  power,"  and, 
without  the  least  evidence — indeed,  against  all  probability — 
suggests  that  it  was  Livia  who  urged  Octavian  to  keep 
Tiberius  in  retirement  at  Rhodes.  He  makes  Livia  hostile 
to  Tiberius  in  favour  of  Julia's  sons,  on  the  ground  that  she 
would  find  them  more  pliant  than  I'iberius.  Every  other 
writer  suggests  precisely  the  contrary.  They  make  her 
murder  Julia's  sons  in  the  interest  of  Tiberius. 

The  death  of  the  younger  son,  Lucius,  is  obscure.  He 
was  sent  on  a  mission  to  Spain  in  the  year  2  a.d.,  and  died 
at  Marseilles  on  the  way.  Since  the  only  ground  for  the 
rumour  that  he  was  poisoned  is  the  indubitable  fact  that  he 
died,  we  need  not  delay  in  considering  it.  Octavian  then 
sent  the  elder  brother  Caius  on  a  mission  into  Syria  under 
the  care  of  his  old  tutor  LoUius.  His  counsellor  unhappily 
died  in  the  East,  and  the  young  prince  was  left  to  the  vicious 
companions  who  regarded  him  as  the  future  dispenser  of 


THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE      33 

Imperial  favours.  He  fell  into  Oriental  ways,  and  was  at 
length  (a.d.  3)  treacherously  wounded  by  a  Syrian  patriot. 
Instead  of  returning  to  Rome,  he  remained  in  the  unhealthy 
atmosphere  of  the  East,  indulged  in  its  habits  of  languor 
and  vice,  and  died  eighteen  months  after  the  death  of  his 
brother.  There  is  no  obscurity  about  his  death.  It  is 
beyond  question  that  he  was  severely  wounded  by  a  Syrian. 
But  the  deaths  of  the  two  brothers  happened  so  opportunely 
for  Tiberius  that  one  cannot  wonder  at  the  suspicion,  in 
certain  minds,  that  Livia  had  had  the  youths  poisoned. 
Nothing  more  than  this  vague  rumour  is  given  us  by  Tacitus, 
Dio,  Suetonius,  or  Pliny  ;  and  it  is  from  a  sheer  pruriency 
of  romance  that  later  writers,  like  Serviez,  have  accepted 
and  emphasized  the  suspicion  recorded  in  the  Roman 
historians.  Not  on  such  slender  grounds  can  we  be 
asked  to  sacrifice  the  conception  of  Livia's  character 
which  is  forced  on  us  by  the  plainer  facts  of  her  career. 
The  youths  were  delicate ;  Caius,  at  least,  had  under- 
mined his  frail  constitution  by  luxury,  if  not  by  vice; 
and  the  Roman  world  harboured  death  in  a  hundred 
forms. 

If  we  still  hesitate  to  choose  between  the  artifice  of 
Livia  and  the  unaided  action  of  natural  causes  in  this 
removal  of  the  'obstacles  to  the  advancement  of  Tiberius, 
we  have  only  to  glance  at  the  fate  of  the  rest  of  Julia's 
children.  The  third  son,  Agrippa,  was  as  robust  in  body 
as  his  brothers  were  weak,  but  he  was  defective  in  mind 
and  devoid  of  moral  control.  His  boorish  conduct  as  a  boy 
gave  great  pain  to  Livia  and  Octavia,  and  his  great  physical 
strength  broke  out  in  uncontrollable  gusts  of  passion.  In 
his  adolescence  he  readily  adopted  the  worst  vices  that 
Rome  could  teach  him,  and  Octavian  was  obliged  to  con- 
demn him  to  imprisonment  and  exile.  There  remained  the 
two  daughters,  Julia  and  Agrippina.  The  younger,  the 
sanest  of  Julia's  children,  lived  to  intrigue  for  power,  and 
greatly  to  embarrass  Livia's  later  years ;  though  we  shall 
find  the  same  tragic  fate  befalling  her  after  the  death  of  the 
Empress,  who  protected  her.  The  elder,  Julia,  was  banished 
3 


34  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

(a.d.  9)  for  incest,  and,  like  her  mother,  lacking  the  courage 
or  virtue  to  end  her  shame  as  the  nobler  Romans  did,  she 
protracted  her  miserable  life  for  twenty  years,  her  hard  lot 
only  alleviated  by  the  charity  of  Livia. 

Fate  had  removed  every  possible  competitor  to  the 
succession  of  Tiberius.  He  returned  to  Rome,  and  his 
judicious  and  sedulous  activity  removed  the  last  traces  of 
the  Emperor's  resentment.  Peace  returned,  after  many 
years  of  storm,  to  the  mansion  on  the  Palatine.  But 
Octavian  had  suffered  profoundly  from  those  terrible  and 
persistent  storms.  The  Rome  of  his  manhood  was  gone.  All 
his  friends  and  counsellors  had  disappeared,  and  the  future 
of  his  people  filled  him  with  apprehension.  The  patrician 
stock  was  decaying  from  luxury  and  vice;  the  ordinary 
citizens  clamoured  for  free  food  and  free  entertainment  with 
a  blind  disregard  of  the  laws  of  national  health.  He  shrank 
from  the  public  gaze,  and  leaned  affectionately  on  Livia 
and  Tiberius. 

In  the  year  14  he  remained  at  Rome  in  the  early  heat 
of  the  summer,  and  became  seriously  ill.  Livia  and 
Tiberius  went  down  with  him  to  the  coast,  where  he 
rallied,  and  some  pleasant  days  were  spent  on  the  island 
of  Capreae  (Capri),  which  he  had  bought.  They  passed  to 
the  mainland,  where  Tiberius  left  them,  but  he  was  soon 
recalled  by  a  message  from  his  mother  that  the  Emperor 
was  sinking.  On  the  last  morning  of  his  life  Octavian 
dressed  with  unaccustomed  care,  and  summoned  his  friends 
to  his  bedside.  Was  Rome  tranquil  on  receiving  the  news 
of  his  dangerous  condition  ?  Did  they  approve  of  his 
conduct  and  accomplishments  ?  They  gave  him  the  assur- 
ance he  desired,  and  were  dismissed.  Could  they  have 
foreseen  the  line  of  rulers  who  were  to  stain  the  purple 
robe  with  blood,  and  load  it  with  shame,  for  so  many 
decades  to  come,  they  would  have  wept.  The  last  moments 
were  for  Livia.  He  died  kissing  her,  and  murmuring  : 
•'  Be  mindful  of  our  marriage,  Livia.  Farewell."  So  ended, 
peacefully,  a  union  that  had  lasted  fifty-two  years  in  a  city 
where  divorce  was  as  lightly  esteemed  as  marriage.    There 


I 


THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE      35 

can  be  little  serious  doubt  about  the  character  of  the  first 
Empress  of  Rome. 

Livia  probably  concealed  the  death  of  Octavian  until 
Tiberius  arrived  from  Dalmatia.  A  report  was  given  out 
that  Tiberius  arrived  in  time  to  receive  the  last  injunctions 
of  the  Emperor.  This  may  be  doubted  without  any  serious 
reflection  on  her  character ;  if,  indeed,  it  was  she,  and  not 
Tiberius,  who  spread  the  report.  There  were  grave  fears — 
well-founded  fears,  as  we  shall  see — that  a  plot,  in  the 
interest  of  corruption,  had  been  framed  to  prevent  the 
succession  of  Tiberius.  In  the  coolness  of  the  night,  so  as 
to  avoid  the  intense  heat  of  August,  they  bore  the  remains 
with  great  pomp  to  the  capital.  There,  on  a  bed  of  ivory 
and  purple,  preceded  by  wax  effigies  of  Octavian  and  of 
earlier  rulers  of  Rome,  the  body  was  carried  to  the  temple 
of  Julius,  where  Tiberius  read  a  funeral  oration.  The 
cortege  went  on  to  the  Field  of  Mars,  by  the  Tiber,  through 
lines  of  black-draped  citizens.  The  pile  was  fired,  and 
zealous  eyes  saw  the  soul  of  Octavian  mount  toward 
heaven  in  the  outward  form  of  an  eagle. 

Livia,  on  approved  custom,  remained  by  the  sacred 
ashes  for  five  days,  and  then  returned  to  face  the  new  life 
which  opened  for  her.  With  the  especially  wild  suggestion 
that  she  had  accelerated  the  death  of  her  husband  we  may 
disdain  to  concern  ourselves.  It  was  owing  to  her  devoted 
care  that  the  ailing  and  delicate  Octavian  had  lived  to  old 
age.  But  a  second  libel  in  connexion  with  the  death  of 
Octavian  must  be  briefly  considered. 

The  apprehension,  or  the  secret  information,  of  the 
dying  Emperor  was  correct.  No  sooner  was  his  death 
announced  than  a  servant  of  the  imprisoned  son  of  Julia 
hurried  to  the  coast,  and  set  sail  for  the  island  of  Planasia, 
with  the  intention  of  bringing  Agrippa  to  Rome  as  a 
candidate  for  the  purple.  He  arrived  only  to  find  a  bleed- 
'*^g  corpse.  The  centurion  in  charge  had  dispatched 
Agrippa  as  soon  as  the  Emperor's  death  was  made  known 
to  him. 

Who  gave  the  order  for  this  execution?    One  cannot 


ffi  THE   EMPRESSES   OF   ROME 

call  it  murder,  for  Agrippa  was  unfit  to  be  restored  to 
society,  and  any  attempt  to  raise  him  to  the  throne  would 
have  been  disastrous  to  Rome.  The  authorities,  as  usual, 
merely  give  us  the  rumours  that  circulated  at  the  time, 
and  leave  us  to  choose  between  Octavian,  Livia,  and 
Tiberius.  We  can  have  little  difficulty  in  choosing.  It 
would  be  so  natural  for  either  Octavian  or  Tiberius  to 
crush  the  conspiracy  by  executing  Agrippa  that  the  intro- 
duction of  Livia  is  superfluous.  Most  probably  Octavian 
had  left  directions  with  Agrippa's  custodian.  There  is  a 
curious  story,  in  several  contradictory  versions,  but  credible 
in  substance,  that  Octavian  in  his  later  years  paid  a  secret 
visit  to  Planasia,  to  see  personally  what  Agrippa's  real 
condition  was.  Quite  the  most  plausible  theory  is  that, 
after  personal  verification  of  his  madness,  Octavian  felt  it 
best  for  Rome,  and  not  inhuman  to  Agrippa,  to  have  him 
put  to  death  as  soon  as  the  question  of  succession  was 
opened. 

We  come  to  the  last  phase  of  Livia's  career.  Tiberius 
was  now  a  tall,  handsome  man,  though  slightly  disfigured, 
with  long  fair  hair  and  features  strangely  delicate  for  one 
of  his  exceptional  physical  strength.  A  better  soldier  than 
his  predecessor,  and  not  an  inept  statesman,  he  was  well 
enough  fitted  to  wield  the  power  which  Octavian  had 
virtually  bequeathed  to  him.  But  a  retiring  disposition, 
an  unhappy  youth,  and  long  years  of  study,  had  made  him 
shrink  from  the  society  of  any  but  scholars,  and  he  long 
hesitated  to  ascend  the  throne  to  which  the  Senate  invited 
him.  We  have  not  good  ground  to  regard  this  reluctance 
as  feigned.  At  last  he  consented,  and  the  critics  of  Livia 
would  have  it  that  her  ambition  now  passed  such  bounds 
as  had  been  set  to  it  by  the  ability  of  Octavian.  We  may 
freely  admit  that  she  looked  forward  to  being  closely 
associated  in  power  with  the  son  whose  career  she  had 
followed  with  such  devotion  and  helpfulness.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  shall  see  how  advantageous  to  the  State 
her  influence  was ;  the  evils  that  at  once  begin  to  darken 
the  life    of    Rome  when    Tiberius    rejects    her   counsels 


THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE      37 

will  plainly  show  this.  Nor  is  there  any  evidence  that 
she  sought  power  from  any  other  motive  than  the  good 
of  the  State.  She  might  take  pride  in  what  she  did, 
and  even  exaggerate  it,  but  such  a  pride  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  the  view  that  she  was  ever  gentle,  humane, 
and  generous. 

The  first  searching  test  of  her  character  occurs  a  few 
years  after  the  accession  of  Tiberius.  As  the  news  of  the 
death  of  Octavian  slowly  travelled  over  the  Empire,  there 
were  mutinous  movements  among  the  legions  in  many 
provinces.  In  Lower  Germany,  especially,  the  troops 
considered  that  their  commander,  Germanicus,  the  nephew 
of  Tiberius,  was  entitled  to  the  purple,  and  they  asked  him  to 
lead  them  to  Rome.  He  was  a  handsome,  engaging  young 
general,  of  imperial  blood,  with  moderate  ability  and  much 
conceit,  and  had  won  the  regard  of  the  soldiers  by  visiting 
the  sick  and  wounded,  advancing  their  pay  out  of  his  own 
purse,  and  other  popular  acts.  He  was  married  to  Julia's 
daughter,  Agrippina,  who  lived  in  camp  with  him.  They 
dressed  their  little  son  Caius  in  soldier's  costume,  and  his 
quaint  appearance  in  miniature  military  boots  won  for  him 
the  pet-name  Caligula  ("  Little-boots ")  by  which  he  is 
known  to  history.  The  legionaries  thought  that  they  had 
with  them  a  model  Imperial  family,  and  promised  to  wrest 
the  throne  from  Tiberius.  Germanicus  weakly  composed 
the  mutiny — mainly  by  forging  a  letter  in  the  name  of 
Tiberius  and  then  treacherously  executing  the  leaders — and 
endeavoured  to  cover  his  blunders  by  vigorous  and  rather 
aimless  attacks  upon  the  Germans.  Tiberius  recalled  him  to 
Rome  to  enjoy  a  "  triumph,"  and  to  keep  him  out  of  further 
mischief. 

Merivale  acknowledges  that  his  conquests  were 
"  wholly  visionary,"  but  Germanicus  had  inherited  the 
charm  and  popularity  of  his  father,  Drusus,  and  Rome  was 
easily  won  for  him.  People  streamed  out  from  the  gates  to 
meet  him,  and  gazed  with  awe  on  his  gigantic  blue-eyed 
captives  and  on  the  large  highly-coloured  paintings  of  his 
victories  in  Germany.     It  was  a  new  source  of  concern  for 


38  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

Livia  and  Tiberius,  and,  to  the  satisfaction  of  Livia's  critics, 
the  danger  ended  lilce  all  the  others. 

Germanicus  and  Agrippina  were  sent  on  a  mission  to 
the  East.  Tiberius  seems  to  have  had  some  disdain  for  his 
spoiled  and  conceited  nephew,  and  he  was  well  aware  of 
the  interested  aims  of  those  who  affected  to  see  in  him  a 
restorer  of  the  old  republican  liberty.  He  chose  an  older 
statesman,  Cn.  Calpurnius  Piso,  to  go  out  as  Governor 
of  Syria,  to  watch  and  prudently  direct  the  movements  of 
Germanicus.  With  Piso  was  his  wife  Plancina,  an  intimate 
friend  of  Livia.  From  these  Tiberius  and  Livia  shortly 
heard  exasperating  accounts  of  the  progress  of  Germanicus 
and  Agrippina.  Piso  found,  on  calling  at  Athens,  that 
Germanicus  had  been  flattering  the  Greeks  for  their 
ancient  culture,  instead  of  pressing  the  dominion  of  Rome. 
He  made  free  comments  on  the  young  general's  conduct, 
pushed  past  his  galleys,  as  they  dallied  in  Greek  waters, 
and  was  hard  at  work  in  Syria  when  Germanicus  arrived. 
The  wives  conducted  the  quarrel  with  more  asperity  than 
their  husbands. 

Rome  had  now  its  party  of  Germanicus  and  party  of 
Tiberius,  and  the  news  from  the  East  was  heatedly  dis- 
cussed. Germanicus  has  gone  to  Egypt,  without  asking 
the  Emperor's  permission,  and  is  patronizing  the  Greek 
and  Egyptian  cults,  which  Tiberius  represses,  and  going 
about  in  Greek  instead  of  Roman  dress.  Piso  has  had  a 
violent  quarrel  with  Germanicus,  and  left  Syria.  And 
before  they  have  time  to  discuss  this  important  intelligence 
there  comes  a  report  that  Germanicus  is  dangerously  ill ; 
that  bones  of  dead  men,  half-burnt  fragments  of  sacrificial 
victims,  leaden  tablets  with  the  name  of  Germanicus 
scrawled  on  them,  and  other  deadly  charms,  have  been 
found  under  the  floors  and  between  the  walls  of  his  house. 
At  length  the  news  comes  that  Germanicus  is  dead,  and 
that  with  his  last  breath  he  has  urged  his  friends  to  avenge 
him.  Rome  goes  into  mourning.  All  the  shops  are  closed, 
and  crowds  gather  everywhere  to  discuss  this  fresh  tragedy 
of  the  Imperial  house.     In  the  middle  of  the  night  a  rumour 


THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE      39 

spreads  that  Germanicus  is  not  dead,  and  people  fill  the 
streets  with  the  glare  of  their  torches,  and  break  into  the 
temples.  But  the  fatal  news  is  confirmed,  and,  when  at 
last  Agrippina  comes  with  the  golden  urn  containing  his 
ashes,  such  mourning  is  seen  as  no  living  man  can 
remember. 

People  observed  that  neither  Livia  nor  Tiberius  ap- 
peared at  the  funeral.  Livia  had  no  reason  to  be  present, 
and  Tiberius  knew  that  the  demonstration  was  due  largely 
to  a  spirit  of  hostility  to  himself  For  the  rest,  it  was  merely 
the  feehng  of  a  frivolous  people  for  a  handsome  and  un- 
fortunate youth.  But  Livia  incurred  more  serious  censure 
during  the  trial  of  Piso  which  followed.  The  ex-governor 
of  Syria  defended  himself  resolutely  for  a  day  or  two,  and 
then,  hearing  that  his  wife  had  deserted  him,  committed 
suicide.  The  anger  of  the  citizens  now  turned  on  the  wife, 
Plancina.  The  Empress,  with  whom  she  had  been  in  close 
communication  throughout,  begged  Tiberius  to  save  her, 
and  he  reluctantly  checked  the  prosecution.  Livia  was, 
of  course,  accused  of  sheltering  a  murderess.  It  must  be 
recollected  that  the  accounts  of  the  story  are  taken  in  part 
from  the  memoirs  of  Agrippina's  daughter,  and  are  coloured 
with  prejudice  against  Tiberius  and  his  mother.  One  can- 
not see  anything  more  serious  than  indiscretion  in  Livia's 
conduct.  Her  conviction  of  the  innocence  of  Plancina  is 
intelligible  enough,  and  one  can  equally  understand  how 
she  would  distrust  a  trial  held  at  Rome  in  the  inflamed 
state  of  public  feeling.  There  is  no  serious  reason  to  sus- 
pect, in  the  death  of  Germanicus,  the  action  of  any  other 
poison  than  the  tainted  atmosphere  of  the  East. 

But  the  interference  of  Livia  annoyed  Tiberius,  and  the 
ten  years  that  follow  are  full  of  differences  between  mother 
and  son.  The  Emperor's  resentment  of  his  mother's  share 
in  public  affairs  had  begun  with  his  reign.  Livia  had 
proposed  to  erect  a  statue  to  the  memory  of  Octavian. 
Tiberius  interfered,  and  referred  her  to  the  Senate  for 
permission.  She  then  proposed  to  give  a  commemoratory 
banquet  to  the  Senators  and  their  wives.    Tiberius  re- 


40  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

stricted  her  to  the  wives,  and  entertained  the  Senators 
himself.  He  reduced  her  escort,  frowned  on  the  public 
honours  that  were  paid  to  her,  and  resented  her  inter- 
ference in  public  affairs.  On  one  occasion  her  friend 
Urgulania  was  summoned  for  debt,  and,  presuming  on  her 
intimacy  with  the  Empress,  treated  the  process  with  con- 
tempt. Livia  asked  Tiberius  to  quash  the  proceedings,  and 
he  deliberately  lingered  so  much  on  his  way  to  the  Forum 
that  the  case  was  allowed  to  proceed. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  stories  which  illustrate  the  want 
of  harmony  between  them.  For  this  Livia  was  largely 
to  blame.  It  was  not  unnatural  that  she,  who  had  been 
so  often  and  so  profitably  consulted  by  Octavian,  should 
expect  a  larger  power  under  the  young  Emperor,  but  she 
failed  to  take  discreet  account  of  the  extreme  sensitiveness 
of  Tiberius.  If  a  story  given  in  Suetonius  is  correct,  she 
so  far  lost  her  discretion  in  one  of  their  quarrels  as  to 
produce  old  letters  in  which  Octavian  had  made  bitter 
reflections  on  the  defects  of  Tiberius.  The  fault  was  not 
wholly  on  her  side,  however.  Tiberius  was  jealous  when 
he  contrasted  the  honour  and  respect  paid  to  her  with  the 
general  feeling  of  reserve  and  distrust  toward  himself,  and 
he  pleaded  the  old-fashioned  idea  of  woman's  sphere  as  a 
pretext  to  restrain  her.  He  grumbled  when  he  one  day 
found  her  directing  the  extinction  of  a  fire,  as  she  had  done 
more  than  once  in  Octavian's  time,  and  he  was  seriously 
angry  when  he  found  that  she  had  placed  her  name  before 
his  on  a  public  inscription. 

But  we  may  leave  these  lesser  matters  and  come  to  the 
next  tragedy  in  the  Imperial  chronicle,  the  shadow  of 
which  darkened  Livia's  closing  years.  She  had  retired 
from  the  palace  to  the  house  which  she  had  inherited  from 
her  first  husband,  Tiberius  Nero.  Here  she  remained  a 
saddened  and  helpless  spectator  of  the  coming  disaster. 
Tiberius,  whom  she  saw  only  once  more  before  she  died, 
had  become  a  peevish  and  gloomy  old  man.  His  tall  spare 
frame  was  bent,  his  head  bald,  his  face,  which  had  always 
been  disfigured  with  pimples,  now  hideous  with  eczema, 


THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE      41 

or  concealed  with  bandages.  His  large  melancholy  eyes 
so  startled  people  that  they  believed  he  could  see  in  the 
dark.  Astrologers  and  students  of  the  occult  gathered 
about  him  in  the  palace  he  had  built  on  the  Palatine,  and 
the  way  lay  open  for  adventurers. 

The  two  chief  aspirants  for  power  were  Agrippina,  the 
widow  of  Germanicus,  and  Sejanus,  Tiberius's  favourite 
general.  Julia's  younger  daughter  seems  to  have  concen- 
trated in  her  person  all  the  masculinity  of  her  family. 
"Implacable,"  as  Tacitus  says,  proud,  and  ambitious,  she 
added  to  the  gloom  that  was  deepening  on  the  Palatine. 
Merivale  calls  her  the  "  she-wolf."  It  seems  probable  that 
she  sought  marriage  with  the  aged  Tiberius  in  order  to 
secure  power  for  herself  or  her  son.  The  only  son  of  the 
Emperor  had  been  poisoned  by  Sejanus,  as  we  shall  see 
presently,  and  her  son  had  a  plausible  title  to  inherit  the 
purple.  The  authorities  tell  us  that  Tiberius  one  day 
found  her  in  tears,  and  was  entreated,  when  he  asked  the 
reason,  to  find  her  a  husband.  She  thought  it  expedient  to 
forget  the  supposed  share  of  Tiberius  in  the  death  of  her 
husband. 

Her  innocent  manoeuvres  were  met,  however,  by  the 
sinister  intrigues  of  Sejanus,  one  of  the  most  unscrupulous 
characters  we  have  yet  encountered.  Under  a  cloak  of 
friendliness  he  was  countering  her  schemes  and  ruining 
her  house.  He  had  seduced  her  daughter  Livilla,  the 
wife  of  Tiberius's  son  Drusus,  and  had,  with  her  con- 
nivance, poisoned  the  young  prince,  and  kept  the  secret 
from  the  Emperor  for  many  years.  It  is  said  that  he  then 
made  proposals  to  Agrippina  to  unite  their  ambitions, 
and,  when  these  were  rejected,  he  determined  to  destroy 
her  and  secure  the  supreme  power  for  himself.  He  put 
his  great  ability  astutely  at  the  service  of  the  Emperor, 
and  once  had  the  good  fortune  to  save  his  life,  by  arching 
his  herculean  body  over  Tiberius  when  the  roof  of  a  cave 
fell  on  them.  It  is  probable  that  he  inflamed  the  resent- 
ment of  Tiberius  against  his  mother,  and  then  used  the 
estrangement  to  increase  the  unpopularity  of  the  Emperor. 


42  THE  EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

Scurrilous  libels  on  "  the  ungrateful  son "  were  current 
in  Rome.  These  are  sometimes  attributed  to  writers  in 
the  service  of  Livia,  but  it  would  be  a  natural  part  of 
the  scheme  of  Sejanus  to  spread  them.  On  one  occasion 
a  noble  lady,  Appuleia  Varilia,  was  charged  by  the  Senate 
with  accusing  Tiberius  and  Livia  of  incest.  Tiberius 
consulted  his  mother,  and  declared  to  the  Senate  that 
they  wished  to  treat  the  libel  with  contemptuous 
indifference. 

To  Sejanus  also  we  must,  on  the  authority  of  Tacitus, 
attribute  a  plot  against  Agrippina,  which  other  writers 
assign  to  Tiberius  or  to  Livia.  At  a  banquet  in  the  palace 
it  was  noticed  that  Agrippina,  pale  and  sullen,  passed 
all  the  dishes  untouched.  Tiberius  at  length  invited  her 
to  eat  a  fine  apple  which  he  chose.  Under  the  eyes  of 
all  she  handed  it  to  a  servant  to  throw  away,  and  Tiberius 
not  unnaturally  complained  of  her  unjust  suspicions. 
Tacitus,  who  gives  the  most  credible  version  of  the  story, 
says  that  the  agents  of  Sejanus  had  warned  her  that  she 
was  to  be  poisoned  at  the  banquet,  so  that  she  would 
act  in  a  way  that  the  Emperor  would  resent. 

Tiberius,  weary  of  the  violent  passions  of  the  capital, 
now  lived  chiefly  in  Campania.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
his  disfigurement  made  him  sensitive.  Rome  would  not 
spare  the  feelings  of  so  unpopular  a  ruler.  It  is  not  at 
all  clear  that  he  shrank  from  his  Imperial  duties — Suetonius 
expressly  says  that  he  thought  it  possible  to  rule  better 
from  the  provinces — or  that  he  wished  to  indulge  in  the 
wild  debauches  which  some  attribute  to  him.  Probably 
Sejanus,  to  secure  more  power  for  himself,  persuaded  him 
that  he  could  best  discharge  his  duties  from  a  provincial 
seat. 

At  this  juncture,  in  the  year  29,  saddened  by  the 
estrangement  from  her  son,  by  his  helpless  surrender  to 
an  unscrupulous  adventurer,  and  by  the  increasing  de- 
generation of  Rome,  Livia  died.  She  had,  by  sober 
living— Pliny  adds,  by  the  constant  chewing  of  a  sweetmeat 
containing  a  certain  medicinal  root,  and   by  the  use  of 


THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE      43 

Pucinian  wine — attained  the  great  age  of  eighty-six.  She 
had  seen  her  husband  dispel  the  long  horrors  of  civil 
war,  refresh  the  Empire,  and  adorn  Rome ;  and  she  had 
felt  the  gloom  and  chill  of  a  coming  tragedy  in  her  later 
years.  Few  of  the  Empresses  have  been  so  differently  \ 
estimated  as  Livia.  Merivale  regards  her  as  "  a  memorable 
example  of  successful  artifice,  having  obtained  in  succession, 
by  craft  if  not  by  crime,  every  object  she  could  desire 
in  the  career  of  female  ambition."  He  adds  :  "  But  she 
had  long  survived  every  genuine  attachment  she  may  at 
any  time  have  inspired,  nor  has  a  single  voice  been  raised 
by  posterity  to  supply  the  want  of  honest  eulogium  in 
her  own  day."  ^ 

The  more  concentrated  research  of  the  biographer  has 
often  to  reverse  the  verdict  of  the  historian,  and  in  this 
case  it  must  acquit  Livia  of  either  craft  or  vice.  It  is  a 
singular  error  to  say  that  Livia  had  no  "  honest  eulogium  " 
in  her  own  day.  The  Roman  Senate  is  exposed  to  the 
disdain  of  historians  for  its  obsequiousness  to  the  reigning 
Emperor,  yet,  at  the  death  of  Livia,  it  sought  to  honour 
her  memory  in  spite  of  the  resentment  of  Tiberius.  The 
Emperor  had  refused  to  go  to  Rome,  either  to  see  her 
before  death  or  to  attend  her  funeral.  He  gave  to  Rome 
an  example  of  silent  indifference.  Yet  he  had  to  use  his 
authority  to  prevent  the  Senate  from  decreeing  divine 
honours  to  Livia,  building  an  arch  to  her  memory,  and 
declaring  her  "  mother  of  her  country."  Dio  remarks 
that  the  Senators  were  moved  to  do  these  things  out  of 
sincere  gratitude  and  respect.  Few  of  the  less  wealthy 
members  of  the  Senate  had  not  profited  by  her  generosity. 
Their  children  had  been  educated,  and  their  daughters 
had  received  dowries,  from  her  purse.  Her  generosity  is 
recognized  by  all  the  authorities.  Her  humanity  is  made 
plain  by  the  contents  of  this  chapter. 

The  adverse  estimate  of  Livia's  character  is  chiefly 
based  on  the  "  Annals  "  of  Tacitus,  and  it  has  long  been 
recognized  that  Tacitus  drew  his  account   largely  from 

'  Vol.  V,  p.  353. 


44  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

the  memoirs  of  the  younger  Agrippina,  daughter  of  the 
woman  who  hated  Livia.  Yet  Tacitus  adds,  when  he 
has  recorded  the  death  of  Livia :  "  From  this  moment 
the  government  of  Tiberius  became  a  sheer  oppressive 
despotism.  While  Augusta  lived  one  avenue  of  escape 
remained  open,  for  the  Emperor  was  habitually  deferent 
toward  his  mother,  and  Sejanus  dared  not  thwart  her 
parental  authority;  but  when  this  curb  was  removed, 
there  was  nothing  to  check  their  further  career."* 

We  have  seen  that  Livia  had  used  the  same  restraining 
influence  on  the  impetuosity  of  Octavian.  With  her  died 
the  attribute,  or  the  wise  policy,  of  Imperial  clemency,  only 
to  be  revived  by  Emperors  who  adopted  that  Stoic  creed 
in  which  she  found  consolation  after  the  death  of  her  son. 
That  she  was  "  hard  "  and  "  unscrupulous  "  is  entirely  at 
variance  with  the  most  authenticated  facts  of  her  career. 
To  say  that  she  was  "  avaricious "  is  a  sheer  absurdity. 
She  maintained  her  sober  personal  habits  to  the  end,  and 
took  money  only  to  bestow  it  on  the  indigent  and  worthy, 
or  expend  it  in  raising  public  buildings.  We  may  grant 
that  she  had  some  ambition,  but  may  claim  that  it  was  well 
for  Rome  that  she  had  it.  She  fell  into  many  errors  of 
judgment  in  her  later  years,  when  Roman  life  was  confused 
by  such  strong  undercurrents  of  intrigue ;  but  these  very 
errors  tend  to  discredit  the  notion  that  she  employed  a 
consummate  art  and  strong  intelligence  in  the  furthering 
of  her  own  interests.  In  a  word,  it  is  the  vices  and  follies 
of  later  Empresses  that  have  disposed  historians  to  regard 
her  sober  virtues  as  a  mere  mask. 

*  "  Annals,"  v.  3. 


THE  END  OF  THE  GOLDEN  AGE      45 


NOTE 

For  the  guidance  of  the  general  reader  it  is  advisable  to  add  a  few 
words  on  the  Latin  authorities,  whom  we  now  constantly  quote.  Tacitus, 
the  chief  source  of  our  knowledge  down  to  the  year  70  A.D.,  is  not  only 
weakened  as  an  historian  by  the  very  strength  of  his  morality,  but  he  has  too 
lightly  followed  the  memoirs  in  which  the  later  Agrippina  defamed  the  rival 
Imperial  family.  Suetonius,  who  takes  us  as  far  as  Domitian,  is  no  less 
honest,  but  he  has  too  genial  and  indulgent  a  love  of  anecdotes  to  discard 
any  on  the  mere  ground  that  they  are  untrue  or  improbable.  Dio  Cassius, 
who  covers  the  first  two  centuries,  is  usually  described  as  malignant ;  but 
one  may  question  if  he  does  more  than  indulge  still  further  the  same  amiable 
preference  of  piquancy  to  truth.  The  "  Historia  Augusta,"  which  is  our  chief 
authority  for  the  greater  part  of  the  Empresses  and  the  richest  source  of 
scandal,  has  been  much  and  profitably  discussed  since  Gibbon  placed  such 
rehance  on  it.  It  is  now  thought  by  some  experts  that  the  original  writers 
of  this  series  of  biographical  sketches  of  the  Roman  Emperors  lived  at  the 
beginning  of  the  third  century,  and  had  a  comparatively  sober  standard  ot 
work.  Toward  the  close  of  the  third,  or  beginning  of  the  fourth,  century 
the  work  was  written  afresh  by  the  group  of  less  scrupulous  writers  whose 
names,  or  pseudonyms,  actually  stand  at  the  head  of  its  chapters.  But  a 
still  later  writer  once  more  recast  the  work,  and  lowered  its  authority.  He 
wrote  frankly  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  piquant  anecdotist,  omitting 
much  that  would  interest  only  the  prosy  student  of  exact  facts,  and  filling  up 
the  vacant  space  with  such  faint  legends  of  Imperial  vice  or  folly  as  still,  in 
his  time,  lingered  without  the  pale  of  history,  or  arose  in  the  field  of  romance. 
The  question  is  fully  discussed  by  Otto  Schultz,  "  Leben  des  Kaisers 
Hadrian  "  (1905),  and  Professor  Komemann,  "  Kaiser  Hadrian"  (1906). 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  WIVES  OF  CALIGULA 

I'* HE  remainder  of  the  reign  of  Tiberius  does  not 
properly  concern  us,  but  a  very  brief  account  of 
it  will  serve  at  once  to  confirm  our  estimate  of  the 
influence  of  Livia,  and  to  prepare  us  for  the  almost  in- 
credibly degraded  scenes  that  were  witnessed  under  his 
successor.  We  saw  that  two  persons  were  intriguing  for 
the  purple  mantle  which  must  soon  fall  from  the  shoulders 
of  the  aged  and  unhealthy  Emperor.  One  was  a  woman 
of  great  ability  and  masculine  courage,  who  sought  the 
succession  for  one  of  her  sons.  The  other  was  a  strong 
soldier  and  an  astute  minister,  a  man  of  the  most  un- 
scrupulous and  hypocritical  character.  The  change  in 
the  form  of  government  had  already  betrayed  its  evil.  The 
fate  of  the  vast  Empire  seemed  but  a  ball  tossed  from 
player  to  player.  But  the  issue  was  even  worse  than  the 
most  sober  observer  anticipated.  Before  Tiberius  died 
both  the  strong  man  and  the  strong  woman  were  to  be 
destroyed,  and  the  Imperial  power  was  to  pass  to  one 
who  was  grossly  unfit  to  exercise  it. 

Less  than  a  year  after  the  ashes  of  Livia  had  been  laid 
in  the  marble  tower  by  the  Tiber,  the  Senate  received  a 
letter  from  the  court  impeaching  Agrippina  and  her  two 
elder  sons.  According  to  Tacitus,  it  was  "commonly 
believed "  that  this  letter  had  been  written  some  time 
before,  and  had  been  withheld  through  the  influence  of 
Livia.  The  only  reasonable  interpretation  that  we  can 
put  on  this  rumour  is  that  people  were  so  convinced  of 

46 


"^ 


V 


A' 


:f 


^/ 


AGRIPPINA   THE   ELDER 

BUST   IN   THE   MUSEUM   CHIARAMONTI 


THE   WIVES   OF  CALIGULA  47 

the  humanity  of  Livia  that  they  did  not  think  the  letter 
would  have  been  written  or  sent  if  she  were  still  alive. 
However  that  may  be,  Agrippina  and  her  sons  were  put 
on  trial  and  condemned  to  exile,  in  spite  of  the  angry 
crowds  that  gathered  about  the  court-house.  Agrippina 
passed  with  dramatic  suddenness  from  her  dream  of  ruling 
the  world  to  a  dreary  exile  in  Herculaneum,  and,  after 
a  time,  to  the  far  more  terrible  prison  of  Pandateria,  where 
her  mother  had  spent  four  years  of  agony.  There,  with 
all  the  strength  of  her  proud  and  ambitious  nature,  she 
awaited  the  death  of  Tiberius.  But  the  only  messages 
which  came  over  the  sea  to  her  gradually  broke  her  spirit. 
Her  sons,  Drusus.and  Nero,  had  been  convicted  of  un- 
natural vice,  as  well  as  conspiracy ;  and  although  we  may 
entertain  some  doubt  about  the  conspiracy,  the  other 
charge  is  only  too  credible  when  we  know  the  habits  of 
the  class  to  which  the  youths  belonged.  Nero  was 
imprisoned  on  one  of  the  islands  of  the  Ponza  group, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  his  mother,  on  the  neigh- 
bouring island,  heard  that  he  had  starved  himself,  or 
been  starved,  to  death.  After  some  time  she  learned 
that  Drusus  had  followed  his  example,  and  the  despair- 
ing woman  refused  food  in  her  turn,  and  went  into  the 
kindlier  exile  of  death.  The  last  of  Julia's  children  did 
not  escape  the  tragic  fate  which  hung  over  the  family. 
We  have  yet  to  see  how  the  curse  falls  on  the  third 
generation. 

Sejanus,  whose  action  we  may  confidently  see  in  the 
ruin  of  Agrippina,  now  stood  near  the  steps  of  the  throne, 
waiting  impatiently  for  the  passing  of  the  despised  Emperor. 
He  was  betrothed  to  Livilla,  the  widow  of  Tiberius's  only 
son  Drusus,  whom  he  had  poisoned,  with  Livilla's  assist- 
ance. With  a  consort  of  Caesarean  blood  he  felt  that  he 
could  easily  fill  the  place  of  Tiberius.  And  in  the  height 
of  his  corrupt  power  and  criminal  hope  the  vengeance  of 
the  fates  fell  on  him  like  a  stroke  of  lightning.  It  is  said 
that  the  wife  he  proposed  to  divorce  disclosed  to  Tiberius 
that  Sejanus  was  the  murderer  of  his  only  son.    Within 


48  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

a  few  hours  he  was  impeached,  condemned,  and  put  to 
death.  All  who  had  gathered  about  him  in  the  hope  of 
his  coming  power  were  scattered  or  destroyed  by  the  frantic 
anger  of  Tiberius.  Livilla  was  urged  by  her  mother  to 
bury  her  shame  in  the  grave.  She  refused,  and  was 
banished.  We  shall  meet  her  again  in  the  chronicle  of 
vice  and  violence. 

After  this  terrible  ordeal  Tiberius  withdrew  to  Capreae, 
where  he  had  built  a  palace.  Wandering,  some  years  ago, 
among  the  ruins  of  what  is  believed  to  have  been  the 
palace  of  Tiberius,  I  found  that  the  echoes  still  lingered 
there  of  the  dark  stories  which  men  told  in  Rome  of  his  later 
years.  Men  said  that  he  had  shut  himself  in  that  sea-girt 
palace  only  to  indulge,  unseen,  in  the  grossest  perversions 
of  a  sensual  nature,  and  that  a  new  profession  of  ministers 
to  lust,  of  which  a  description  may  be  found  in  Tacitus, 
had  grown  out  of  his  weariness  even  of  unnatural  vice. 
One  does  not  readily  admit  such  orgies  in  a  man  between 
his  seventy-second  and  seventy-eighth  year,  and  it  seems 
to  me  that  one  may  offer  an  explanation  of  the  myth,  which 
will  also  serve  to  introduce  the  third  Emperor  of  Rome 
and  his  wives. 

Suetonius  describes  Tiberius  as  surrounded  by  learned 
men  and  absorbed  in  obscure  problems  of  astrology, 
mythology,  and  letters.  The  most  resolute  adherent  of 
the  more  romantic  story  must  have  some  difficulty  in 
reconciling  this  band  of  prosy  pedants  with  the  sensual 
orgies  which  popular  rumour  located  in  the  lonely  palace. 
When,  however,  we  learn  that  two  young  princes  of  the 
least  intellectual  and  most  immoral  character  formed  part 
of  the  household,  we  see  that  there  may  have  been  two 
entirely  distinct  lives  sheltered  by  the  palace  at  Capreae. 
If  we  suppose  that  these  young  men  and  their  sycophantic 
attendants  freely  indulged  in  the  vices  which  were  then 
common  to  Roman  youths,  while  their  elders  were  intent 
on  the  glorious  planets  of  a  Neapolitan  sky,  we  have  a 
satisfactory  explanation  of  the  legend.  The  horror  of 
Rome  at  the   Emperor's  bloody  avenging  of  the  murder 


THE  WIVES  OF  CALIGULA  49 

of   his    son  would    not    dispose    people    to    discriminate 
conscientiously. 

One  of  these  princes  was  Herod  Agrippa,  son  of  the 
King  of  Judaea,  whom  Octavian  had  brought  to  Rome  for 
security.  The  other,  a  year  younger,  was  "Caligula,"  as 
the  soldiers  had  nicknamed  the  surviving  son  of  Agrippina 
and  Germanicus.  Caius  Caesar — to  give  him  his  real  name — 
was  in  his  nineteenth  year  when  his  mother  was  banished. 
Tiberius  a  few  years  later  took  him  to  Capreae,  where  he 
would  prove  an  apt  pupil  to  Herod  in  Oriental  ways.  The 
vein  of  moral  perversity,  if  not  insanity,  which  we  trace 
in  all  the  descendants  of  Julia,  is  most  clearly  exhibited  in 
Caligula,  and  the  tragedy  of  the  Caesars  deepens  when, 
in  the  year  37,  Tiberius  dies,  and  Caligula  is  called  to  the 
throne.' 

He  had  been  married  in  33  to  Junia  Claudilla,  daughter 
of  Junius  Silanus,  a  proconsul  of  eminent  services  and 
distinguished  family.  She  was  happily  spared  the  fate  of 
sharing  the  throne  with  Caligula  by  dying  in  childbirth. 
What  her  life  in  Capreae  must  have  been  is  not  obscurely 
suggested  by  her  early  death.  No  prospect  in  Europe  is 
more  pleasant  than  that  which  unfolds  its  superb  and  far- 
lying  beauty  to  the  spectator  on  the  green  summits  of 
Capri,  from  which  the  eye  may  wander  over  the  broad 
blue  bay,  with  its  silver  fringe  of  surf,  or  round  the 
crescent  of  evergreen  land  that  begins  with  Sorrento,  and 
sweeps  majestically,  past  the  foot  of  Vesuvius,  to  the 
distant  haze  in  which  Baiae  once  lived.  Yet  to  a  refined 
and  sensitive  young  woman  this  splendid  palace  must 
have  been  a  deathly  jail.  Repelled  alike  by  the  purblind 
scholars  and  the  licentious  princes,  the  heavy  monotony 
of  learning  and  vice  unrelieved  by  visits  to  Rome,  she 
sank  under  her  burden  in  three  years — just  missing  by 
one  year  the  title  of  second  Empress  of  Rome.  Her  father, 
a  grave  and  illustrious  Senator,  endeavoured  to  check 
Caligula's  extravagance  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign.    The 

^  An  apology  should  be  made  for  retaining  the  nickname  of  the  third 
Emperor,  but  it  seems  to  be  ineradicably  fixed  in  history. 

4 


50  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

brutal  Emperor  bade  him  "  take  his  greeting  to  the  spirit 
of  the  dead."  With  a  last  sad  glance  at  the  future  of  his 
country,  Junius  Silanus  obeyed. 

We  are  credibly  told  that  Caligula  then  made  love  to 
Ennia,  wife  of  the  Prefect  of  the  Guard.  Sejanus  had 
persuaded  Tiberius  to  form  a  corps  of  "  Praetorian  Guards," 
an  Imperial  body-guard  which  was  destined  to  have  a 
disastrous  influence  on  the  future  of  Rome.  The  actual 
prefect  or  commander  of  this  regiment,  Macro,  was  the 
most  powerful  person  in  the  suite  of  Tiberius.  With  or 
without  his  connivance,  his  wife  yielded  to  Caligula,  on 
the  condition  that  he  should  marry  her  when  he  became 
Emperor.  Macro  and  Ennia  accompanied  Caligula  when 
he  bore  the  will  and  the  ashes  of  Tiberius  to  Rome.  A 
gloom  had  settled  over  Italy  during  the  later  years  of 
Tiberius's  reign,  and  men  hailed  the  young  Caligula  as 
the  sun  and  the  blue  sky  are  hailed  after  days  of  dark 
tempest  at  sea.  Standing  by  their  flower-girt  altars, 
coming  out  with  torches  at  night,  people  greeted  him 
with  frantic  epithets  of  aff'ection.  He  was  their  "  star," 
their  "  chicken,"  their  "  dear  child,"  as  he  had  been  to 
the  soldiers  in  Germany  years  before.  Not  that  he  was 
a  handsome  j'outh.  His  frame  was  thin  and  lanky,  and 
his  movements  awkward.  He  was  prematurely  bald,  and 
his  sunken  eyes  looked  out  with  a  scowl  from  his  pallid 
face.  But  he  was  the  son  of  Germanicus,  the  grandson 
of  Julia.  All  the  follies  which  the  family  had  perpetrated 
were  forgotten. 

For  a  month  or  two  he  fulfilled  the  hope  of  his  people. 
The  reign  of  terror  was  ended  at  once.  He  recalled  his 
sisters  from  exile,  and  brought  to  Rome,  with  great 
respect,  the  ashes  of  his  mother  and  brothers.  The  circus 
and  the  amphitheatre  rang  once  more  with  the  cheers 
of  the  populace.  The  golden  age  of  Octavian  had  been 
restored,  men  said.  But  the  emasculated  system  and  feeble 
mind  of  Caligula  were  unequal  to  the  nervous  strain. 
Early  in  his  reign  Ennia  reminded  him  of  his  written 
promise  to  marry  her,  and  Macro  had  an  air  of  patronage 


THE   WIVES   OF  CALIGUI.A  51 

in  advising  him.  In  a  sudden  blaze  of  ferocity  he  ordered 
Ennia  and  her  children  to  be  executed,  and  graciously 
permitted  Macro  to  end  his  own  life.  He  had  found  a 
wife — his  sister  Drusilla. 

His  incestuous  relation  with  Drusilla  was  soon  the 
topic  of  Rome.  It  had  probably  begun  before  she  was 
banished,  and  when  he  recalled  her  to  his  palace,  a  young 
and  beautiful  girl  of  about  twenty  summers,  he  conceived 
a  violent  passion  for  her,  divorced  her  from  her  husband, 
and  announced  that  he  intended  to  marry  her.  The 
Emperor  was  above  all  laws,  he  said.  Rome  laughed  the 
laughter  of  fools.  He  was  providing  it  with  stupendous 
entertainment.  The  games  of  the  circus  ran  for  twelve 
hours,  day  after  day,  and  the  night  was  turned  into  fresh 
day  with  illuminations,  banquets,  and  such  pleasures  as 
they  could  get  with  the  money  he  freely  distributed.  In 
the  midst  of  it  all  he  fell  ill ;  not  improbably  he  was 
paying  with  epilepsy  the  price  of  his  wild  excesses.  There 
was  such  sorrow  in  Rome  as  had  rarely  been  felt  at  the 
illness  of  its  greatest  citizens.  Men  vowed  their  lives  for 
the  life  of  the  beloved  Emperor;  and  Caligula,  when  he 
recovered,  saw  that  they  kept  their  vows.  He  was  ill  for 
many  weeks,  and,  when  his  strength  returned,  he  had  lost 
the  little  sanity  and  sobriety  that  nature  had  ever  put  in 
his  ill-compacted  frame.  The  rest  of  his  reign  was  a 
nightmare. 

Drusilla  died  during  his  illness,  or  soon  after  his 
recovery.  Some  writers  suggest  that  her  malady  was  a 
feeling  of  deep  shame,  but  the  description  which  Dio  gives 
of  her  does  not  support  this  view,  nor  does  the  single 
virtue  of  remorse  seem  to  be  known  among  the  descendants 
of  Julia.  The  grief  of  Caligula  was  no  less  insane  than 
his  passion  had  been.  No  illustrious  Roman  was  ever 
honoured  with  such  pomp  of  funeral  as  this  woman, 
whose  incestuous  life  he  cried  over  the  world.  A  Senator 
saw  her  soul  mount  to  heaven  from  the  burning  pile, 
and  was  rewarded  with  a  million  sesterces.  The  degraded 
Senate  declared   her  a  goddess,  and  it  was  decreed  that 


52  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

henceforward  women  should  swear  by  the  divinity  of 
Drusilla.  Earth  and  heaven  resounded  with  his  demented 
moans ;  and  even  before  Drusilla  was  put  among  the  gods 
he  had  married  again. 

Livia  Orestilla,  the  second  Empress  of  Rome,  is  one 
of  those  ladies  who  are  known  to  us  only  in  the  familiar 
phrase,  that  she  was  a  young  woman  of  great  beauty 
and  illustrious  family.  In  her  case  we  need  no  ampler 
portrait,  as  she  was  Empress  only  for  a  few  days.  Before 
the  end  of  the  first  year  of  his  reign  (37),  and  in  the 
midst  of  his  lamentation  over  Drusilla,  Caligula  was 
invited  to  the  wedding  of  Calpurnius  Piso,  a  noble  of 
rank  and  wealth.  Caligula  fancied  the  bride,  and  at  once 
made  her  his  Empress.  With  equal  license  he  divorced 
her  a  few  days  afterwards,  and  she  learned  what  it  was 
to  fall  from  the  height  of  a  throne.  He  forbade  her  to 
have  any  commerce  with  the  husband  of  whom  he  had 
robbed  her,  and  then,  alleging  that  his  order  had  been 
disregarded,  banished  both  of  them  to  remote  and  distinct 
parts  of  the  Empire. 

The  next  lady  on  whom  his  unbridled  imagination  rested 
was  Lollia  Paulina.  Caligula  was  probably  more  attracted 
by  her  wealth  than  by  the  remarkable  beauty,  the  high 
character,  and  the  distinguished  ancestry  which  the 
chronicles  ascribe  to  her.  The  rich  spoils  of  conquered 
provinces  had  accumulated  in  her  family,  and  her  husband, 
the  Governor  of  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  was  industriously 
adding  to  their  wealth.  People  told  at  Rome  that  she  once 
went  to  a  marriage-supper  in  pearls  and  emeralds  that 
were  valued  at  fifty  million  sesterces.  Her  high  virtue 
seems  to  have  been  consistent  with  a  display  that  made 
her  a  topic  of  table-talk,  and  that  brought  upon  her  a 
lamentable  fate.  Caligula,  piqued  by  the  stories  of  her 
wealth  and  beauty,  ordered  her  husband  to  bring  her  to 
Rome,  and  she  was  soon  afterwards  established  in  his 
palace  as  the  third  Empress  of  Rome.  Within  a  year 
Caligula  divorced  her  on  the  ground  that  she  gave  no 
promise  of  perpetuating  his  line. 


THE   WIVES  OF  CALIGULA  53 

It  is  often  said  that  Caligula  had  only  married  her  for  the 
purpose  of  seizing  her  fortune,  as  his  prodigal  expenditure 
was  rapidly  emptying  the  treasury.  This  seems  to  be  an 
error,  as  we  shall  find  her  in  the  next  chapter  incurring 
a  miserable  fate  on  account  of  her  immense  wealth.  The 
truth  was  that  Caligula  had  in  the  meantime  discovered  a 
lady  whose  temper  wholly  suited  his  own,  and  of  whose 
fertility  he  was  actually  assured. 

In  the  spring  or  early  summer  of  the  year  39  we  find 
him  perpetrating  one  of  his  stupendous  acts  of  folly  at 
Baiae.  He  was  accustomed,  in  the  warmer  weather,  to 
cruise  about  the  coast  of  Campania  with  his  wife  and  suite. 
He  had  two  great  Liburnian  galleys  built,  each  with  ten 
banks  of  oars,  their  prows  blazing  with  gold  and  jewels, 
their  decks  adorned  with  vines,  colonnades,  and  divers 
freaks  of  irresponsible  wealth.  As  they  cruised  by  the 
bay,  some  one  reminded  him  of  an  old  proverb  which 
spoke  of  riding  from  Baiae  to  Puteoli,  across  an  arm  of  the 
bay,  as  one  of  the  most  certain  impossibilities.  At  once 
he  ordered  a  bridge  to  be  built  across  the  water  and 
elaborately  decorated.  In  what  was  supposed  to  be  the 
armour  of  Alexander  the  Great,  over  which  was  thrown  a 
mantle  of  purple  silk,  the  conqueror  of  impossibilities  rode 
from  Baiae  to  Puteoli.  On  the  following  day  he  drove  his 
chariot  across ;  and  far  into  the  night,  the  hills  around 
being  lit  up  with  immense  fires,  he  carried  the  debauch 
which  celebrated  his  glorious  feat.  In  their  intoxication 
numbers  reeled  from  the  bridge  into  the  scented  waters. 

Eager  for  fresh  victories,  he  transferred  his  delirious 
court  to  Gaul,  and  declared  that  he  was  proceeding  against 
the  fierce  Germans.  The  tribes  were  not  in  revolt,  and  the 
whole  expedition  was  a  comedy ;  some  of  the  Roman  writers 
say  that  a  few  tame  captives  were  conveyed  across  the 
river  and  hunted,  so  that  the  Emperor  might  truthfully 
inform  the  Senate  that  he  had  gained  a  victory  and  merited 
a  triumph.  Suetonius  even  adds  that,  when  he  did 
eventually  return  to  Rome  and  celebrate  his  triumph,  a 
few  slaves  were  forced  to  learn  a  little  German  and  dye 


54  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

their  hair,  to  pose  as  conquered  tribesmen  before  his 
chariot.  In  the  meantime,  events  which  concern  us  more 
closely  were  happening  at  Lyons. 

The  extravagance  of  Caligula  was  rapidly  emptying  the 
treasury.  In  twelve  months  he  spent  2,700  million  sesterces. 
His  baths  were  of  the  most  precious  ointments ;  his 
banquets  were  especially  designed  to  waste  money — one 
alone  cost  jCSo,ooOy  in  modern  coinage — and,  when  the  flow 
was  not  fast  enough,  he  drank  pearls  dissolved  in  vinegar, 
and  had  gold  fashioned  in  the  shape  of  food  and  served  to 
his  guests.  He  disdainfully  swept  the  palaces  of  Octavian 
and  Tiberius,  with  other  mansions,  from  the  Palatine,  and 
erected  a  palace  of  extraordinary  proportions  and  barbaric 
splendour.  Such  habits  drew  about  him  a  crowd  of 
ignoble  parasites,  and  one  can  well  believe  that  he  had 
discovered  a  conspiracy  against  him  at  Lyons.  He  had 
prostituted  the  honour  of  Rome  in  a  manner  so  childish 
and  base  that  few  could  be  unmoved.  Observing  the 
wealth  of  the  Gauls — for  Lugdunum  (Lyons)  was  then  the 
centre  of  a  prosperous  and  cultivated  region — he  began  to 
sell  to  them  the  possessions  of  the  Imperial  house.  He 
was  present  at  the  auction,  and  the  proceeds  were  so 
satisfactory  that  he  sent  to  Rome  for  wagon-loads  of 
furniture,  heirlooms,  and  curios  from  the  Imperial  palaces, 
and,  as  they  were  offered  for  sale,  pointed  out  himself  the 
historical  value  of  each  object. 

In  his  suite  was  the  first  husband  of  his  sister  Drusilla. 
This  distinguished  noble,  Lepidus,  may  have  exchanged 
views  on  the  insanity  of  the  Emperor  with  the  disgusted 
Gauls.  At  all  events,  Caligula  sent  word  to  the  Senate 
that  he  had  discovered  a  plot  against  his  life,  and  added 
that  his  sisters,  Livilla  and  Agrippina,  had  been  convicted 
of  adultery  with  Lepidus.  He  put  Lepidus  to  death,  and 
compelled  Agrippina,  a  proud  and  spirited  young  princess, 
to  carry  on  foot  to  Rome  the  urn  containing  the  ashes  of 
her  alleged  lover.  We  shall  see  how,  on  his  return  to 
Rome,  Caligula  made  atonement  to  vice  for  this  drastic 
punishment  of  adultery.     In  fact,  he  already  had  a  mistress 


THE  WIVES  OF  CALIGULA  55 

in  the  Court  at  Lyons,  and  this  lady  now  displaces  Lollia 
Paulina,  and  becomes  the  fourth  Empress  of  Rome. 

Milonia  Caesonia  is  one  of  the  oddest  figures  in  the  very 
varied  gallery  through  which  our  story  conducts  us.  Julia 
and  Messalina  are  imperial  in  their  vices.  Caesonia,  whose 
vices  are  so  little  discussed,  stands  entirely  apart  from  the 
other  Empresses — at  least  of  the  first  century.  Wholly 
destitute  of  character  or  culture,  already  worn  with  the 
bearing  of  three  children,  she  seems  to  have  won  and 
retained  the  fancy — one  cannot  call  it  affection  or  regard — 
of  Caligula  by  a  handsome  figure,  a  robust  masculinity,  and 
an  entire  lack  of  refinement.  He  often  exhibited  her  nude 
to  his  friends,  and  encouraged  her  to  dress  as  an  Amazon 
and  ride  her  horse  before  the  army.  His  disordered  mind 
puzzled  at  times  over  the  charm  by  which  she  held  him. 
He  would  stroke  her  strong  white  throat,  and  murmur 
pleasantly  that  at  one  word  from  him  the  knife  of  the  exe- 
cutioner would  sink  into  it ;  and  he  would  sometimes,  with 
the  same  brutal  humour,  threaten  to  have  her  tortured,  in 
order  to  discover  what  philtre  she  secretly  administered 
to  him.  She  had  much  tact  and  no  scruples.  Their 
daughter  Drusilla  was  born  on  the  day  of  their  marriage, 
according  to  Suetonius,  or  thirty  days  afterwards,  according 
to  more  credible  authorities.  As  the  child  grew,  it  showed 
the  temper  of  a  wild  cat.  Caligula  watched  its  frenzies 
with  delight,  as  it  screamed  and  bit  its  nurse ;  there  was, 
he  said,  no  room  for  doubt  about  the  paternity. 

With  such  a  spouse,  and  with  his  favourite  courtesan 
Pyrallis,  whom  also  he  had  established  in  his  new  palace, 
Caligula  indulged  his  insane  impulses  without  the  least 
restraint.  Within  a  few  months  of  inflicting  so  terrible 
a  punishment  on  his  sister,  he  was  giving  imperial  lessons 
in  incest  and  adultery.  So  low  had  much  of  the  Roman 
nobility  fallen  that  no  sword  was  drawn  on  the  Emperor, 
or  employed  on  its  possessor,  when  he  concluded  his 
banquets  with  a  command  of  promiscuous  intercourse  to 
the  men  and  women  of  patrician  rank  whom  he  entertained. 
Nor  were  his  excesses  confined  within  the  walls  of  his 


56  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

palace,  and  known  only  by  uncertain  rumour.  He 
developed  a  passion  for  driving  chariots,  and  frequented 
the  company  of  grooms  and  gladiators.  Rome  genially 
applauded,  since  it  implied  more  and  longer  shows  in 
the  circus  and  amphitheatre.  The  struggles  of  the 
different  factions  in  the  races — of  whom  Caligula  sup- 
ported the  Greens — more  than  ever  enlivened  the  dull 
days  of  an  idle  populace.  Caligula  forced  nobles  to 
exercise  the  base  and  dangerous  profession  of  the  gladiator, 
and  to  drive  chariots  before  the  mob  in  the  circus. 

But  the  amusement  of  Rome  reached  its  height  when 
Caligula,  in  the  year  39,  discovered  his  divinity.  Other 
Emperors  were  content  to  leave  it  to  the  flattery  of  their 
people  to  detect  a  divinity  in  them  after  their  very  human 
careers  were  over.  "  I  am  turning  into  a  god,"  said  one  of 
them  ironically,  as  he  died.  Caligula  believed  that  his 
splendour  was  already  divine.  Vitellius,  a  contemptible 
courtier,  father  of  the  later  Emperor,  shrewdly  borrowed 
the  idea  from  Oriental  monarchs,  and  suggested  it  to 
Caligula.  Then  were  witnessed  scenes  in  Rome  which 
even  the  wildest  extravagances  of  Nero  cannot  rival.  Its 
citizens  had,  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  to  restrain  their 
laughter,  and  bend  in  respectful  worship,  when  the  slim, 
ungraceful  youth — he  was  yet  only  in  his  twenty-seventh 
year — with  the  weariness  of  dissipation  on  his  pale  face, 
trod  their  streets  in  the  garments  of  Jove,  with  a  beard  of 
gold  thread,  or  marched  past  them  with  the  bow  and 
quiver  and  golden  halo  of  Apollo,  or  dressed  to  the  more 
congenial  part  of  Venus.  A  machine  was  made  by  which 
he  could,  in  a  puerile  way,  imitate  the  thunder  of  the  rival 
god ;  and  he  ordered  the  heads  to  be  struck  off  the  statues 
of  the  Greek  deities  and  replaced  by  copies  of  his  own. 
A  deity  must  have  a  cult.  Caligula  appointed  himself 
and  his  horse,  for  which  he  provided  a  marble  palace 
and  an  ivory  manger,  the  high  priests  of  his  cult.  Caesonia 
was  associated  in  the  priesthood,  and  the  position  of 
ordinary  priest  of  the  cult  was  sold  to  various  nobles 
at  the  price  of  eight  million  sesterces  each.     Poor  men 


THE  WIVES   OF  CALIGULA  57 

were  forced  to  ruin  themselves  and  put  an  end  to  their 
lives;  wealthier  men  meekly  posed  as  the  ministers  of 
a  divinity  who  gorged  himself  with  food  and  wine  at 
each  meal,  and  resorted  to  the  vomit  that  he  might  return 
to  the  table. 

How  long  nature  would  have  suffered  this  madness 
to  debase  the  fallen  city  one  cannot  tell,  but  the  exhaustion 
of  the  treasury  now  led  Caligula  to  do  things  which  roused 
a  few  Romans  from  their  lethargy.  He  repeated  in  Rome 
the  auctions  he  had  held  at  Lyons,  and  many  stories  are 
told  of  his  brutal  irresponsibility.  The  truth  of  these 
stories  is  always  doubtful,  but  one  may  be  quoted  as 
an  illustration  of  the  popular  feeling.  It  is  said  that  a 
Senator  fell  asleep  during  one  of  the  sales.  Caligula 
malignantly  called  the  auctioneer's  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  sleeping  man  was  nodding  at  every  bid,  and  the 
Senator  awoke  to  find  that  he  had  bought  thirteen 
gladiators  and  other  property  at  fabulous  prices.  Caligula 
even  stood  at  his  palace  door  to  receive  gifts,  pleading 
that  the  addition  to  his  family  had  impoverished  him. 

He  then  discovered  a  new  source  of  funds  in  the 
execution  of  the  wealthier  nobles.  Brutal  and  sanguinary 
from  the  first,  his  growing  madness  and  his  delight  in 
gladiatorial  shows  fostered  his  cruelty.  He  had  an  actor 
burned  alive  in  the  Forum  for  venturing  even  to  hint, 
in  an  ambiguous  phrase,  that  the  Imperial  behaviour  was 
reprehensible.  Others  he  had  tortured  and  executed  in 
his  presence,  in  order  that  he  might  enjoy  the  sensation 
of  seeing  them  suffer.  But  it  was  mainly  in  quest  of 
money  to  maintain  his  terrible  expenditure  that  he  stooped 
to  the  lowest  excesses.  No  man  of  wealth  in  Rome  was 
safe.  Informers  were  eager  for  the  fourth  part  of  a  victim's 
property,  to  which  they  were  entitled  after  a  successful 
impeachment ;  Caligula  hungered  for  the  remaining  three- 
fourths.  Every  ten  days  he  would  "  clear  his  accounts," 
as  he  put  it,  or  doom  to  death  any  wealthy  Senators  whom 
he  had  chosen  to  put  on  his  list  of  suspects.  He  would 
return  from  the  court  boasting  to  Caesonia  of  the  heavy 


58  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

work  he  had  done  while  she  slept.  A  great  terror  brooded 
over  the  city,  and  men  talked  of  the  Emperor  in  whispers. 
Omens  and  signs  multiplied.  The  statue  of  Jupiter 
Olympus  had  been  brought  to  Rome,  and  one  day  the 
workmen  rushed  in  alarm  from  the  temple  in  which  it 
was  placed,  crying  that  the  marble  god  had  burst  into 
a  fit  of  laughter. 

On  January  24th,  in  the  year  41,  this  appalling  gloom 
came  to  an  end,  and  the  third  Emperor  and  fourth  Empress 
of  Rome  were  justly  removed.    The  long  hesitation  of  the 
Romans  must  not  too  readily  be  ascribed  to  cowardice. 
The  Praetorian  Guards  were  now  encamped  at  the  edge  of 
the  city,  and  were  richly  paid  for  personal  loyalty  to  the 
Emperor ;  so  that  there  was  very  faint  hope  of  a  successful 
rising  of  the  citizens.     For  the  greater  part  these  formidable 
soldiers  were  mercenaries,  caring  nothing  for  the  honour  of 
Rome,  faithful  as  dogs  to  the  liberal  master.     It  was  not 
until  an  officer  of  this  regiment  headed  a  conspiracy  that 
any  action  could  be  taken  with  a  prospect  of  success.    This 
officer  was  a  favourite  of  Caligula,  but  the  Imperial  friend- 
ship was  expressed  in  such  coarse  and  stinging  epithets 
that  he  was  driven  to  rebel.     He  and  his  associates  deter- 
mined to  assassinate  Caligula  when  he  attended  the  Palatine 
games  in  the  later  part  of  January.    A  large  wooden  theatre 
had  been  erected  for  the  occasion,  and  Caligula  presided 
with  delight  at  the  repulsive  spectacles.      Such  was  the 
popular    enthusiasm    that    the    conspirators    surrounded 
Caligula  day  after  day  without  daring  to  touch  him.     His 
German  guard,  insensible  to  the  grievances  of  the  Romans, 
would  at  once  and  blindly  oppose  a  rising,  and  the  people 
seemed  to  have  forgotten  his  tyranny  in  the  blood-reeking 
show  he  had  provided  for  them. 

They  came  to  the  fifth  and  final  day  of  the  games. 
Caligula  was  unwell,  and  wished  to  remain  in  the  palace, 
but  he  was  persuaded  to  make  an  effort  to  attend  the  final 
performance.  Before  a  vast  audience  the  actors  represented 
the  crucifixion  of  a  band  of  robbers,  and  the  stage  was 
washed  with  blood.    The  chief  actor  of  the  time  had  a  trick 


THE   WIVES  OF  CALIGULA  59 

of  pouring  blood  from  his  mouth,  and  the  other  actors 
clumsily  imitated  him.  When  it  was  over,  Caligula,  elated 
with  the  wild  applause  of  the  citizens,  entered  the  narrow 
passage  which  led  from  the  theatre  to  his  house  on  the 
Palatine,  The  conspirators  seized  their  last  chance,  and 
fell  upon  the  Emperor  with  their  swords.  Within  a  few 
hours  Rome  so  far  changed  that  it  was  the  turn  of  the 
partisans  of  Caligula  to  tremble.  His  body  was  removed 
and  stealthily  buried  by  Herod  Agrippa. 

Caesonia  seems  to  have  remained  in,  or  preceded  Caligula 
to,  the  palace,  with  her  little  daughter.  There  the  cries  of 
the  guard  and  the  noisy  confusion  in  the  palace  would  soon 
announce  the  disaster  to  her.  She  had  no  time  to  escape, 
or  devise  any  policy.  A  centurion  rushed  to  her  room 
and  stabbed  her  to  death.  Her  infant  was  roughly  seized 
by  a  soldier,  and  its  brain  was  shattered  on  the  walls  of  the 
palace,  where  the  brief  infamies  of  its  father  and  mother 
had  degraded  the  civilization  of  Rome. 


t 


CHAPTER  IV 

VALERIA  MESSALINA 

THE  fall  of  Caesonia  was  hardly  less  romantic  than 
the  succession  to  her  position  of  the  woman  who  is 
known  to  every  reader  of  Roman  history,  and  to 
many  others,  as  Messalina.  When  Caligula  entered  the 
narrow  passage  leading  to  the  Palatine,  after  the  perform- 
ance in  the  theatre,  a  few  members  of  his  suite  walked 
before  him.  One  of  these  was  his  uncle  Claudius,  a  slow- 
witted  and  despised  man,  in  his  fiftieth  year,  whom  Caligula 
had  rescued  from  humiliation  and  put  in  office.  He  had 
already  entered  the  palace  when  the  raucous  cries  of  the 
German  guard  and  the  flash  of  weapons  informed  him  of 
the  assassination  of  the  Emperor.  The  guards  were  cutting 
down  such  of  the  conspirators  as  they  could  reach.  In 
instinctive  terror  Claudius  hid  behind  a  curtain,  nor  was  he 
reassured  when  he  saw  the  soldiers  pass  with  the  heads 
of  the  nobles  they  had  slain.  Presently  a  soldier  of  the 
Praetorian  Guard  noticed  his  feet  below  the  curtain,  and 
drew  him  out.  Claudius  fell  to  the  ground  in  terror,  and 
implored  them  to  spare  his  life.  The  soldiers  had  recog- 
nized him,  however.  They  put  him  in  a  litter,  and  carried 
him  on  their  shoulders  to  the  camp.  Citizens  whom  they 
passed  in  the  street  pitied  the  harmless  and,  as  was  generally 
believed,  half-witted  prince.  At  last  some  one  learned,  or 
divined,  the  purpose  of  the  guards,  and  Claudius  awoke 
from  his  terror  to  hear  the  strange  cry  of  "Salve,  Im- 
perator,"  and  realized  that  he  was  to  be  made  Emperor 

of  Rome. 

60 


VALERIA  MESSALINA  6l 

He  had  been  married  three  years  before  to  Valeria 
MessaHna,  who  thus  became  the  fifth  Empress.  As  the 
youngest  son  of  Drusus,  brother  of  Tiberius,  and  Antonia, 
daughter  of  Mark  Antony  and  Octavia,  he  was  the  natural 
heir  to  Caligula.  The  Imperial  power  was  in  no  sense 
hereditary,  but  the  attachment  of  the  Praetorian  Guards  to 
the  ruling  family,  and  their  irresistible  domination  over 
Rome,  for  some  time  ensured  a  kind  of  hereditary 
succession.  There  had,  however,  been  no  deliberate 
proposal  to  put  Claudius  on  the  throne.  While  the 
future  of  the  Empire  was  being  determined  by  the  rough 
mercenaries  in  the  Praetorian  camp,  where  Claudius 
promised  a  substantial  largess  for  his  elevation,  the 
Senate  was  actually  discussing  the  question  of  restoring 
the  Republic.  Somewhat  deformed  in  person,  clumsy  in 
gait  and  corpulent,  stuttering  in  speech,  deficient  at  least 
in  the  power  of  expression,  Claudius  had  always  been 
regarded  as  a  negligible  offshoot  of  the  Julian  stock.  His 
mother  had  spoken  of  him  as  "a  little  monster,"  Octa- 
vian  had  genially  treated  him  as  half-witted,  and,  when 
he  arrived  at  early  manhood,  Tiberius  had  refused  to  give 
him  any  rank  or  office.  Caligula,  however,  had  given  him 
consular  rank,  and  promoted  him  in  the  palace,  though  he 
treated  his  uncle  with  the  brutal  jocularity  which  his 
mental  infirmity  was  held  to  justify. 

We  shall  see  that  this  treatment  was  far  from  just,  for 
Claudius  had  some  excellent  qualities ;  but  the  disdain  of 
his  family  threw  him  upon  the  society  of  his  servants,  and 
led  him  to  seek  consolation  in  the  pleasures  of  the  table 
and  the  dice-board.  He  had  in  early  youth  been  betrothed 
to  a  daughter  of  Julia.  This  contract  was  dissolved  when 
Julia's  vices  were  discovered,  and  he  was  married  to  a 
young  lady  of  distinguished  and  wealthy  family,  Livia 
Medullina  Camilla.  She  died  on  the  wedding-day,  and  he 
married  Plautia  Urgulanilla,  a  daughter  of  the  Empress 
Livia's  intimate  friend,  Urgulania.  Suspecting,  after  a  few 
years,  that  her  friendship  with  his  emancipated-slave 
friends  was  warmer  than  he  intended,  he  divorced  her, 


62  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

and  married  iElia  Paetina,  who  in  turn  was  shortly 
divorced. 

In  the  year  38  he  married  the  notorious  Valeria 
Messalina,  whose  name  conveys  to  every  student  of  history 
or  morals  a  summary  impression  of  the  worst  features  of 
the  early  Empire.  The  spirit  of  our  time  is  so  resolutely 
bent  on  visiting  the  sins  of  the  children  on  their  fathers — 
so  determined  to  seek  the  secret  of  character  in  heredity — 
that  the  older  biographical  practice  of  drawing  out 
genealogies  cannot  be  entirely  abandoned ;  though  one 
may  wonder  whether  the  tainted  atmosphere  of  Rome  may 
not  have  been  more  deadly  than  a  tainted  stock.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  both  her  parents  were  of  the  Julian 
family,  and  were  first  cousins  of  Claudius.  Her  father, 
Valerius  Messala  Barbatus,  was  a  Senator  of  distinction. 
He  is  known  to  us  as  the  Senator  who,  in  the  old  Roman 
spirit,  made  a  futile  effort  to  restrain  women  from  invading 
public  life  and  the  camp.  Her  mother  has  a  less  reputable 
record.  We  shall  see  that  she  eventually  falls  under  a 
charge  of  conspiracy  and  magic  ;  but  we  may  find  that  her 
more  serious  offence  was  an  intense  hatred  of  the  Empress 
Agrippina,  who  brought  the  charge  against  her. 

Messalina,  as  we  may  now  briefly  call  her — with  a 
passing  protest  against  that  uncouth  expression,  "  the 
Messaline  "—was  in  her  sixteenth  year  at  the  time  of  her 
marriage.  An  indulgent  imagination  will  be  able  to 
appreciate  the  dangerous  situation  of  the  young  girl. 
Entering,  in  her  teens,  a  world  of  the  most  seductive 
pleasure  and  the  utmost  license,  with  so  responsive  and 
impulsive  a  nature  as  she  had,  she  needed  the  guidance  of 
a  man  whom  she  could  at  least  respect.  Instead  of  this, 
she  found  herself  mated  to  a  man  of  forty-eight  years, 
whose  full  paunch  and  long  thin  legs  and  tremulous  head 
were  the  jest  of  the  Palatine,  and  who  spent  his  hours  in 
the  company  of  Greek  freedmen,  or  in  too  prolonged  an 
enjoyment  of  rich  dishes  and  costly  wines.  Claudius,  it  is 
true,  adored  her,  but  his  adoration  only  made  him  the  surer 
dupe  of  her  craving   for   indulgence.      Her    misconduct 


VALERIA   MESSALINA  63 

probably  began  early.  When,  after  the  evening  meal,  she 
left  her  spouse  intoxicated  and  snoring  over  the  emptied 
dishes,  when  his  throat  had  been  tickled  with  a  feather, 
so  that  he  might  disgorge  and  return  to  the  Imperial 
dainties,  the  young  girl  would  naturally  yield  to  the 
counsels  of  the  unscrupulous  courtiers  who  abounded  in 
such  a  palace. 

The  path  to  the  abyss  was  made  smoother  for  her  by 
her  husband's  reliance  on  his  freedmen.  In  the  later  years 
of  the  Republic,  when  the  dominion  of  Rome  was  extended 
over  the  East,  the  practice  had  grown  of  employing  the 
more  accomplished  slaves  of  Greece  and  Syria  in  the 
patrician  palaces.  Equally  expert  at  keeping  accounts  or 
pandering  to  vice,  they  won  their  emancipation  and 
acquired  large  fortunes  in  the  service  of  their  new  masters. 
They  were  usually  regarded  with  disdain,  but,  as  we  saw, 
Claudius  had  been  driven  to  associate  familiarly  with  them, 
and  they  attained  great  power  when  he  ascended  the 
throne.  Rome  now  discovered  a  new  evil  in  the  Imperial 
rule  it  had  adopted.  All  who  wished  to  approach  the 
Emperor  with  a  petition  had  to  flatter  or  bribe  the  freed- 
man  Callistus,  to  whom  this  part  of  Claudius's  duties 
was  entrusted.  His  steward  of  finances,  Pallas,  his 
secretary.  Narcissus,  and  his  adviser  in  letters,  Polybius, 
stood  at  one  or  other  avenue  of  the  palace,  and  exacted 
toll  of  all  who  approached.  Offices  were  distributed 
through  their  avaricious  hands,  and  it  was  soon  noticed 
that  they  built  magnificent  villas  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Rome.  Whether  the  rumour  was  true  or  not,  it  was 
believed  in  Rome  that  some  of  the  noblest  ladies  paid 
an  ignominious  price  to  these  men  for  the  favours  they 
sought,  or  were  surrendered  to  them  by  the  Empress. 
It  is  at  all  events  clear  that  Messalina  soon  came  to  an 
understanding  with  them.  Both  they  and  she  needed  to 
dupe  the  purblind  Emperor,  and  it  was  felt  that  a  friendly 
co-operation  would  be  better  than  a  precarious  contest  for 
supremacy. 

Before  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  Claudius's  reign  this 


64  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

corrupt  collusion  began  to  show  its  influence.  Claudius 
had  begun  well.  He  set  to  work  at  once  to  redress  the 
injustice  and  follies  of  Caligula.  A  general  amnesty  was 
granted,  the  courts  of  justice  were  purified,  the  administra- 
tion was  opened  to  the  abler  provincials,  and  the  public 
funds  were  expended  on  public  works  of  solid  usefulness. 
How  far  the  freedmen  were  responsible  for  these  measures 
it  is  difficult  to  say,  but  it  seems  that  we  must  grant 
Claudius,  not  only  good  will,  but  some  quality  of  judgment. 
At  the  same  time,  there  is  evidence  from  the  first  of  some 
infirmity  of  mind.  His  work  as  a  judge  seems  to  have  been 
more  remarkable  for  industry  than  enlightenment.  On  one 
occasion  an  angry  knight  {eques)  threw  books  at  him  in  the 
court-house;  on  another,  during  a  shortage  of  corn,  the 
people  pelted  him  with  mouldy  crusts  in  the  Forum. 
Humane  he  was,  apparently,  in  those  early  months,  but 
he  does  not  seem  to  have  shaken  off  his  earlier  repute  and 
exhibited  any  personal  dignity. 

It  was  not  long  before  even  his  humanity  was  warped 
by  the  malignant  persuasions  of  his  wife  and  the  corrupt 
connivance  of  his  freedmen.  In  our  age  of  apologists  there 
has  been  some  effort  to  relieve  the  character  of  Messalina 
from  its  heavy  burden  of  infamy,  or  at  least  to  discredit  the 
evidence  adduced  for  it.  I  have  already  said  enough  about 
the  Roman  authorities  to  justify  one  in  making  some  re- 
serve in  regard  to  the  details  transmitted  to  us  about 
Messalina.  When  we  read  Tacitus  we  have  to  remember 
that  he  had  before  him  the  memoirs  of  her  bitter  enemy 
and  successor,  Agrippina.  When  we  read  Suetonius  and 
Dio  and  later  writers  we  must  not  forget  their  love  of 
vivid  colours  and  romantic  details.  Yet  these  writers  had 
in  their  time  official  records,  and  something  like  public 
journals,  belonging  to  the  earlier  period,  which  put  the 
malignant  and  unscrupulous  action  of  Messalina  beyond 
question  ;  of  the  less  startling  stories  of  her  infidelities  we 
have  proof  enough  in  the  remarkable  and  authentic  episode 
which  will  close  her  career.  It  cannot  reasonably  be 
doubted  that  the  traditional  estimate  of  the  character  of 


VALERIA   MESSALINA  6$ 

Messalina  is  substantially  just,  though  we  must  use  some 
discretion  in  admitting  particular  statements  about  her. 

With  this  reserve  we  may  follow,  in  fair  chronological 
order,  the  career  of  this  young  girl  of  nineteen,  who  is 
dazed  by  the  sudden  attainment  of  Imperial  wealth  and 
power,  until,  in  her  twenty-fifth  year,  her  childish  efforts 
to  pierce  her  bosom  with  a  dagger  are  ended  by  the  manly 
thrust  of  a  soldier's  sword.  She  had  borne  a  daughter, 
Octavia,  before  the  accession  of  her  husband,  and  she  was 
far  advanced  in  child-bearing  when  Caligula  was  assas- 
sinated. Claudius,  unable  to  believe  his  good  fortune, 
expecting  daily  that  some  fresh  movement  would  dislodge 
him  from  the  throne,  kept  in  the  palace  with  her.  A  month 
after  his  accession  she  bore  a  son,  Tiberius  Claudius 
Germanicus  (later  known  as  Britannicus),  and  Claudius 
ventured  out,  to  exhibit  his  heir  to  the  people  and  express 
his  joy.  He  never  entirely  lost  his  fear.  Soldiers  served 
him  at  table,  and  all  who  approached  him  were  searched. 
But  his  clement  and  comparatively  enlightened  rule  won 
him  some  popularity,  his  gluttony  and  weak  wit  were 
genially  overlooked,  and  he  gave  promise  of  a  prosperous 
reign. 

The  first  indication  of  the  evil  of  his  feeble  dependence  Vy 
on  Messalina  and  the  freedmen  occurred  before  the  end 
of  the  year  41.  Claudius  had  recalled  from  exile  Caligula's 
sisters,  Julia  Livilla  and  Agrippina,  and  restored  their 
property.  Agrippina,  whose  character  and  career  will 
occupy  the  next  chapter,  was  in  her  twenty-fifth  year, 
Livilla  in  her  twenty-third.  Both  had  the  beauty  of  the 
Julian  women  in  its  ripest  development.  Agrippina 
quickly  realized  her  situation  and  discreetly  concealed 
her  ambition,  but  the  younger  woman  was  too  proud  to 
be  diplomatic,  and  she  was  suspected  of  an  ambition  which 
she  possibly  did  not  entertain.  Messalina  became  jealous,  ' 
and  denounced  her  to  Claudius  for  adultery.  Claudius 
was  persuaded  that  an  open  trial  would  entail  scandal  on 
the  Imperial  family,  and  the  unfortunate  woman  was  exiled 
without  the  chance  of  defence.  She  was  starved  to  death 
5 


V. 


66  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

in  her  prison  shortly  afterwards,  and,  when  the  further 
course  of  this  story  has  been  read,  one  will  hardly  hesitate 
to  accept  the  assurance  of  the  chroniclers  that  this  grave 
crime  was  committed  by  the  orders  of  Messalina. 

That  the  charge  against  Livilla  was  malignant  cannot 
be  doubted  when  we  learn  that  her  lover  was  said  to  be 
the  famous  Stoic  moralist,  Seneca.  The  disease  of  Rome 
had  already  evoked  a  natural  remedy.  The  austere  code 
of  morals  which  Zeno  had  formulated  some  centuries 
earlier  in  the  marble  colonnade  at  Athens  was  now 
adopted  by  the  best  of  the  Romans.  Pointing  to  the 
enfeeblement  and  degradation  which  this  epidemic  of 
Eastern  vice  and  luxury  had  brought  on  their  city,  the 
philosophers  argued  that  the  curb  must  be  placed  once 
more  on  sensual  impulse,  and  the  old  virility  of  Rome 
restored.  Seneca  was  the  most  distinguished  representa- 
tive of  this  growing  school  at  Rome,  and,  ambiguous 
or  even  reprehensible  as  his  conduct  may  seem  to  us  at 
a  later  stage,  we  should  in  this  case  prefer  to  attribute 
his  punishment  to  the  known  vice  of  Messalina  rather 
than  to  a  frailty  on  his  part  of  which  we  have  no  indica- 
tion. The  wise  and  just  counsel  that  he  gave  to  Claudius 
was  probably  distasteful  to  Messalina  and  the  freedmen. 
Without  trial  or  defence  he  was  banished  to  Corsica.  It 
is  sometimes  said  that,  as  Seneca  nowhere  impeaches  the 
virtue  of  Messalina,  we  may  distrust  the  charge  of  vice 
against  her  which  we  find  in  all  the  later  chroniclers ; 
but  Seneca  also  fails  to  refer  to  her  greater  and  quite 
indisputable  misdeeds,  so  that  the  omission  has  no  signifi- 
cance. Seneca  remained  in  exile  six  years,  and  had  no 
more  personal  knowledge  than  Suetonius  of  the  debauches 
of  Messalina. 

Her  first  success  emboldened  the  Empress.  Within  a 
few  months  she  selected  another  lady,  Julia,  the  daughter 
of  Drusus,  and  denounced  her  to  Claudius.  Such  virtue 
or  discernment  as  Claudius  may  have  possessed  was  now 
attenuated  by  the  sensual  excesses  in  which  his  wife  and 
his  ministers  encouraged  him  to  indulge,  and  his  humanity 


VALERIA   MESSALINA  67 

was  contaminated  by  the  passion  for  gladiatorial  displays 
which  he  gradually  contracted.  We  must  not  too  hastily 
admit  the  lowest  estimate  of  his  powers.  If  Octavian 
could  be  so  long  and  so  easily  duped  by  Julia,  we  may 
admit  that  Claudius's  ignorance  was  consistent  with  some 
measure  of  good  sense,  which  he  still  displayed  in  pro- 
vincial administration  and  the  accomplishment  of  public 
works.  But  from  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  his  reign  > 
he  lends  himself  so  basely  and  ignobly  to  the  schemes 
of  Messalina  that  it  is  impossible  to  defend  him.  No 
sooner  did  his  wife  accuse  Julia  than  she  was  banished, 
without  trial,  and  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  her  speedy 
death  at  the  hands  of  the  centurion  in  charge  of  her  was 
due  to  the  orders  of  Messalina.  It  was  said  that  Julia 
had  excited  the  Empress's  suspicions  by  too  tender  a 
regard  for  Claudius. 

The  more  prudent  Agrippina  now  sought  the  protection 
of  a  husband.  She  is  said  to  have  chosen  the  future 
Emperor,  Sulpicius  Galba,  and  urged  him  to  divorce  his 
ailing  wife  ;  but  the  wife's  mother  took  her  part,  and 
ended  the  intrigue  by  boxing  Agrippina's  ears  in  public. 
The  wife  died  soon  afterwards,  but  Galba  feared  the 
resentment  of  Messalina  too  much  to  wed  Agrippina. 
She  then  induced  Crispus  Passienus,  a  wealthy  and  dis- 
tinguished noble  and  a  famous  orator,  to  divorce  his  wife 
and  marry  her.  She  had  inherited  a  moderate  fortune 
from  an  earlier  husband — the  father  of  her  son,  the  future 
Emperor  Nero — and  the  great  wealth  and  distinction  of 
Passienus  put  her  in  a  much  stronger  position.  Passienus 
died  soon  afterwards,  leaving  his  fortune  to  Agrippina 
and  Nero.  How  the  fortune  was  used  for  the  advance- 
ment of  mother  and  son,  and  how  Agrippina  was 
eventually  murdered  by  her  son,  will  be  told  in  the  next 
chapter.  Serviez  repeats  without  hesitation  a  rumour, 
lightly  reproduced  in  one  of  the  chronicles,  that  she 
murdered  Passienus  to  secure  the  wealth.  The  charge 
is  of  the  most  frivolous  character.  Her  husband  had 
afforded    her    some    protection  :     a    fortune    without     a 


68  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

husband  would  rather  attract  than  divert  the  passion 
of  Messalina, 

The  year  42  was  marked  by  a  conspiracy  that  un- 
happily disposed  Claudius  more  than  ever  to  confide  in 
Messalina  and  the  freedmen.  The  troops  in  Dalmatia 
were  to  be  employed  in  the  dethronement  of  Claudius. 
At  the  last  moment,  however,  the  soldiers  were  startled 
by  so  many  and  such  undeniable  signs  of  the  anger 
of  the  gods  that  they  returned  to  their  loyalty  and 
slew  their  officers.  The  standards  could  not  be  dragged 
out  of  the  ground — a  not  unnatural  event,  one  would 
think,  in  a  Dalmatian  winter — and  the  wreaths  had  fallen 
from  the  eagles. 

The  plot  was  reported  to  the  palace,  and  Messalina 
and  the  freedmen  drew  up  Jong  lists  of  men  whom  it  was 
desirable  to  remove  or  despoil.  Wealthier  men  redeemed 
their  lives  by  paying  considerable  sums ;  others  were  put 
to  the  torture,  or  were  consigned  to  prison  or  the  grave. 
A  story  is  told  in  the  record  of  this  persecution  which 
should  guard  us  from  admitting  the  common  fallacy  that 
the  older  spirit  of  Rome  was  quite  extinct.  A  distin- 
guished patrician  heard  that  his  name  was  on  the  list 
of  the  condemned.  His  wife  urged  him  to  escape  the 
ignominy  of  a  public  execution  by  ending  his  own  life, 
and,  when  he  hesitated,  she  buried  the  dagger  in  her  own 
bosom,  and  then  handed  it  to  him  with  the  words,  worthy 
of  a  Corneille :  "  It  does  not  hurt."  Another  victim  was 
Appius  Silanus,  who  had  married  Messalina's  mother, 
Domitia  Lepida.  The  chroniclers  say  that  his  crime  was 
to  have  rejected  the  advances  which  Messalina  made  to 
him.  Whatever  the  motive  was,  she  induced  the  freed- 
man  Narcissus  to  tell  Claudius  that  he  saw,  in  a  dream, 
Silanus  thrusting  a  dagger  into  the  Emperor's  heart. 
Claudius  nervously  consulted  his  wife,  who  confessed, 
with  artistic  horror,  that  the  same  dream  had  frequently 
tormented  her.  They  had  meantime  summoned  Silanus 
to  the  palace,  and,  as  he  entered  at  that  moment,  the 
Emperor  ordered  him  to  be  executed  at  once. 


VALERIA   MESSALINA  69 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  dark  crimes  attributed  to  Messa- 
lina  that  we  cannot  seriously  question,  and  that  fully 
prepare  us  to  believe  the  less  inhuman  misdeeds  which  it 
might  otherwise  be  possible  to  doubt.  In  the  following 
year  (a.d.  43)  Claudius  went  to  Britain,  leaving  his  Empress 
at  Rome.  It  seems  to  have  been  at  this  time  that,  unless 
we  are  arbitrarily  to  set  aside  one  group  of  charges  in 
the  records  and  admit  another,  Messalina  indulged  in  the 
practices  which  have  secured  for  her  an  unenviable 
immortality.  The  perfectly  authentic  sequel  of  the  story 
will  show  that  she  had  so  extraordinary  a  disregard  for 
even  the  pretence  of  moral  feeling  that  the  statements  of 
the  chroniclers  cannot  for  a  moment  be  set  down  as  im- 
probable. In  a  word,  Messalina  surpassed  Caligula  both 
in  her  own  misconduct  and  in  the  propagation  of  vice. 
Envying  the  trade  of  the  lowest  women  of  Rome,  she  had 
one  of  the  rooms  at  the  palace  equipped  on  the  model  of 
the  chambers  of  the  meretrices  in  the  tenements  of  the 
Subura,  put  over  the  door  the  name  of  one  of  the  most 
notorious  women  of  that  caste,  Lycisca,  and  offered  the 
lascivious  embrace  of  an  Empress  to  any  who  cared  to  pay 
the  price  for  which  she  stipulated.  Others  place  the  scene 
in  an  actual  brothel.  Not  content  with  her  own  abasement, 
she  compelled  the  most  distinguished  ladies  of  Rome  to 
follow  her  example.  She  bestowed  the  honours  and  offices,! 
which  Claudius  left  at  her  disposal,  on  the  husbands  who 
would  complacently  witness  the  defilement  of  their  wives, 
and  offered  the  alternative  of  her  deadly  lists  to  those  who 
refused.  Uncertain  as  we  must  always  be  whether  these 
statements  are  not  mere  exaggerations  of  her  conduct  in  the 
popular  mind  of  the  time,  they  are  consistent  enough  with 
the  accredited  facts  of  her  career. 

In  the  year  44  Claudius  returned  with  joy  to  what  he 
still  regarded  as  the  chaste  and  tender  arms  of  his  young 
Empress.  So  lively  was  his  esteem  of  her  virtue  that  he 
obtained  from  the  Senate  permission  for  her  to  ride  in 
the  ceremonious  car  {carpentum),  an  honour  which  was 
restricted  to  the  priestly  rank  and  rigorously  forbidden  to 


70  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

women.  He  granted  her,  also,  the  signal  distinction  of 
riding  in  his  chariot  on  the  day  of  his  triumphal  procession. 
The  ease  with  which  she  duped  him  led  her  to  fresh 
excesses.  It  is  said  that  when  she  saw  his  wine-soaked 
body  laid  to  bed  at  night,  she  placed  one  of  her  maids  with 
him,  and  went  with  the  companions  of  her  debauches.  If 
we  may  believe  a  story  which  has  no  inherent  improb- 
ability, and  has  some  confirmation  later,  she  made  the 
blind  Emperor  himself  purvey  to  her  vices.  She  one  day 
complained  to  Claudius  that  the  popular  actor,  Mnester, 
would  not  obey  her  when  she  commanded  him  to  leave  the 
stage  and  enter  her  private  service.  Claudius  forced  him 
to  do  so ;  and  three  years  later,  when  Messalina's  conduct 
was  exposed,  Mnester  exhibited  to  the  Emperor  the  scars 
on  his  body  which  gave  proof  of  Messalina's  brutal 
familiarity.  Even  when  she  used  the  bronze  coinage  of 
Caligula,  which  had  been  withdrawn  from  circulation,  to 
make  a  statue  to  Mnester,  Claudius  suspected  nothing. 

This  licentious  conduct  continued  until  the  year  47. 
Messalina  was  only  in  her  twenty-fifth  year  when  her  long 
impunity  led  her  to  take  the  step  which  ruined  her.  A 
bust  of  her  that  is  preserved  at  Florence,  and  a  cameo  at 
Vienna,  give  a  representation  of  her  that  we  have  no 
inclination  to  distrust.  The  curly  goldef^-yellow  hair — 
Juvenal  tells  us  its  colour — is  elaborately  dressed  over  the 
low  forehead,  and  the  large  deep-set  eyes  are  abnormally 
close.  There  is  some  irregularity  in  the  undeniable  beauty 
of  the  face ;  and  the  thin  lips  and  small  mouth,  drooping 
weakly  at  the  corners,  would  irresistibly  suggest  a  record 
of  adventure,  if  such  a  story  were  not  assigned  to  her  in 
the  chronicles  of  the  time.  With  that  record  before  us  it 
is,  no  doubt,  easy  for  physiognomists  to  detect  a  moral 
distortion  in  the  features,  and  to  discover  unknown,  as 
well  as  verify  the  known,  vices  of  the  Empress  in  the 
truthful  ^marble.  Yet  any  thoughtful  observer  will  be 
disposed  to  see  in  those  pitiless  lineaments  a  revelation 
of  the  truth  about  Messalina  and  her  race.  It  is  a  pic- 
ture of  strength   worn  to  decay  by  reiterated  storms  of 


MESSALINA 

BUST    IN   THE   UFFtZI    PALACE,    FLORENXK 


VALERIA   MESSALINA  71 

passion,  of  beauty  fading  with  the  disease  which  foreruns 
death. 

One  last  crime  must  be  added  to  the  record  of  Messalina 
before  we  come  to  the  crowning  folly  of  her  career.  There 
remained  one  woman  in  Rome  more  beautiful  than  she ; 
and  one  distinguished  patrician  whose  virtue  rebuked  her, 
and  whose  wealth  allured  her.  She  resolved  to  bury  the 
two  under  a  common  ruin. 

Valerius  Asiaticus,  a  patrician  of  consular  rank  and 
great  merit,  had  withdrawn  from  Rome  to  Crete  as  the 
madness  of  Messalina  and  the  blindness  of  Claudius 
increased.  Unhappily  for  him,  he  owned  the  beautiful 
and  famous  garden  which  Lucullus  had  laid  out  on  the 
summit  of  the  Pincian  Hill,  and  Messalina  was  now  eager 
for  it.  She  employed  the  tutors  of  her  children  to  declare 
to  the  Emperor  that  Asiaticus  was  at  the  head  of  an 
important  faction  at  Rome,  and  had  gone  to  fire  the  Eastern 
provinces  with  his  rebellious  spirit.  The  omens  which 
were  reported  from  the  East  seemed  to  Claudius  to  make 
mere  human  testimony  superfluous.  The  moon  had  been 
darkened  by  an  eclipse,  and  a  new  island  had  risen  from 
the  iEgaean  Sea.  The  Chaldaean  sages  interpreted  these 
signs  with  their  customary  art,  and  Asiaticus  was  brought 
to  Rome. 

He  listened  in  disdain  to  the  charge  of  conspiracy 
and  adultery  which  the  tutors,  Sosibius  and  Suillius, 
brought  against  him,  but,  when  they  proceeded  to  accuse 
him  of  unnatural  vice,  he  broke  into  an  angry  denial  of  the 
whole  accusation.  Messalina  was  present  at  the  trial — a 
wholly  irregular  proceeding,  in  Claudius's  chamber — and 
saw  that  the  Emperor  was  moved.  She  whispered  to 
Vitellius,  the  sycophant  who  had  first  discovered  Caligula's 
divinity  and  shaded  his  eyes  from  the  blaze,  that  Asiaticus 
must  on  no  account  escape,  and  left  the  room.  Vitellius,  with 
ready  wit,  fell  at  the  feet  of  the  Emperor.  He  enlarged  at 
length  on  the  great  merits  of  the  accused,  and  concluded 
with  an  artful  plea  that  Claudius  would  grant  Asiaticus 
the  favour  of  being  allowed  to  take  his  own  life^  instead 


72  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

of  handing  him  over  to  the  public  executioner.  Easily 
confused  by  this  stratagem,  and  fancying  that  he  was 
showing  some  clemency,  Claudius  assented.  Asiaticus, 
true  to  the  finest  traditions  of  his  fathers,  returned  to  his 
palace,  bathed  and  supped  in  perfect  tranquillity,  and  then 
opened  his  veins.  Messalina  secured  the  gardens  of 
Lucullus. 

The  lady  with  whom  Asiaticus  is  said  to  have  offended 
was  Poppaea  Sabina,  the  only  woman  in  Rome  who  sur- 
passed Messalina  in  beauty.  That  would  be  quite  enough 
to  arouse  the  jealousy  of  Messalina,  but  we  are  told  that 
she  had  the  still  greater  mortification  of  believing  that 
Poppaea  was  too  intimate  with  the  actor  Mnester,  whom 
the  Empress  had  appropriated.  The  daughter  of  Poppaea 
will  presently  come  before  our  eyes  in  the  gallery  of 
Roman  Empresses,  and,  if  we  may  infer  from  her  conduct 
the  nature  of  her  mother's  precepts  and  example,  we  cannot 
set  aside  the  charge  as  improbable.  There  is,  however,  no 
need  for  us  to  discuss  it.  No  sooner  was  Asiaticus  con- 
demned than  Messalina  sent  the  news  to  Poppaea,  and  she 
put  an  end  to  her  own  life.  Sosibius  received  a  million 
sesterces,  in  the  form  of  a  special  reward  for  his  service  in 
instructing  the  young  princes  ;  and  other  ministers  to  the 
cruelty,  avarice,  and  passion  of  the  Empress  were  richly 
endowed. 

Messalina  now  ventured  upon  so  flagrant  a  violation, 
not  merely  of  decency,  but  of  the  moderate  discretion  that 
had  hitherto  concealed  her  conduct  from  her  husband,  that 
her  career  of  infamy  was  brought  to  a  violent  close.  She 
had  for  some  time  entertained  and  indulged  a  passion  for 
Caius  Silius,  one  of  the  most  handsome  men  among  the 
Roman  nobility.  Tacitus  assures  us  that  there  was  no 
secrecy  in  the  amour.  She  persuaded  Siiius  to  divorce  his 
wife,  visited  his  house  with  a  large  retinue,  and  made  him 
repeated  gifts  of  slaves  and  other  property  belonging  to 
the  Imperial  house.  An  obscure  passage  in  Tacitus  seems 
to  imply  that  her  impatience  of  all  laws  led  her  to  form  the 
design  of  marrying  Silius  while  married  to  Claudius,  and 


VALERIA   MESSALINA  73 

the  details  of  what  immediately  followed  have  come  down 
to  us  in  contradictory  versions.  It  is  said  by  some  that 
Silius  proposed  to  her  to  remove  Claudius  and  share  the 
throne  with  him,  and  that  she  hesitated  only  from  fear 
that  Silius  might  divorce  her  as  soon  as  he  had  secured  the 
purple.  Other  writers  say  that  the  phoenix  appeared  in 
Egypt,  as  it  had  done  before  the  death  of  Tiberius,  and  that 
the  nervous  Emperor  was  further  told  of  a  prediction  that  the 
husband  of  Messalina  would  die  before  the  end  of  the  year. 
In  order  to  cheat  this  decree  of  the  fates,  Suetonius  says, 
Claudius  signed  the  divorce  of  Messalina,  and  went  down 
to  the  coast,  leaving  her  free  to  marry  Silius.  He  intended 
to  return  and  recover  her  as  soon  as  Silius  had  fulfilled  the 
prophecy  by  dying. 

It  is  clear  that  a  good  deal  of  legend  has  mingled  with 
the  true  account  of  the  events  which  led  to  Messalina's 
downfall,  and  one  can  merely  try  to  construct  a  plausible 
story  out  of  the  discordant  versions.  Tacitus,  the  highest 
authority,  knows  nothing  of  the  prophecy,  or  the  divorce 
which  it  is  said  to  have  occasioned.  His  silence  is  not 
conclusive,  and  the  course  attributed  to  Claudius,  however 
extravagant  it  may  seem,  is  not  inconsistent  with  his 
abnormally  timorous  nature.  On  the  whole,  however,  one 
is  disposed  to  agree  with  Merivale,  that  Claudius  heard  of 
no  prophecy,  signed  no  divorce,  and  knew  nothing  of  the 
liaison  until  a  later  stage,  as  Dio  implies.  But  Merivale 
is  plainly  wrong  in  suggesting  that  the  marriage  of 
Messalina  and  Silius  is  a  libellous  legend  borrowed  from 
Agrippina's  memoirs.  When  he  submits  that  such  a 
marriage  could  not  have  taken  place  without  the  Emperor's 
knowledge,  he  forgets  that,  as  all  the  authorities  state  or 
imply,  Claudius  had  left  Rome  and  gone  down  to  the 
coast.  The  Emperor  returned  to  the  city  as  soon  as  he 
heard  of  the  marriage. 

The  real  course  of  events  seems  to  be  that  Claudius 
was  vaguely  informed  of  the  existence  of  a  conspiracy 
against  him.  He  complained  bitterly  to  the  Senate,  con- 
iined  himself  for  some  time  to  the  palace,  and  then,  in 


74  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

October,  went  to  Ostia  to  inspect  certain  public  works 
which  were  in  progress  there.  Delighted  at  his  removal, 
Messalina  went  through  the  form  of  marriage — the  laxer, 
not  the  more  solemn,  form  {confarreatio) — with  Silius,  and 
cast  aside  the  last  shade  of  reserve.  Base  as  her  nature 
was,  she  must  have  been  weary  of  the  nightly  spectacle 
of  the  repulsive  old  man  sinking  back  in  satiety  on  his 
couch,  while  slaves  tickled  his  throat  with  a  feather  to 
induce  a  vomit.  Silius  was  young,  handsome,  and  not 
without  wit.  A  better  future  seemed  to  open  before  her. 
Perhaps  the  slow-witted  Emperor  would  make  no  struggle 
for  his  throne ;  perhaps  the  city  and  the  guards  would 
gladly  sacrifice  him  for  this  handsome  young  Imperial  pair. 
There  is  calculation  in  the  carven  face  of  Messalina.  But 
the  news  was  speeding  to  Ostia,  and  the  dreadful  end 
was  near. 

Shortly  after  the  marriage  came  the  festival  of  the 
vintage,  the  Bacchanalia,  which  was  celebrated  by  the  bride 
and  bridegroom  and  their  friends  with  the  wildest  merri- 
ment. That  last  scene  in  the  licentious  career  of  Messalina 
must  have  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  feeling  of  Rome, 
and  it  is  lit  up  for  ever  by  one  of  Tacitus's  most  vivid 
flashes  of  description.  Messalina  had  bestowed  on  Silius 
the  Imperial  palace  and  its  contents,  and  in  the  garden  of 
the  palace  they  paid  full  honour  to  the  orgiastic  cult  of 
Bacchus.  Wine-presses  were  set  up,  and  the  women 
of  Messalina's  company,  their  white  limbs  and  bosoms 
scantily  covered  with  strips  of  fawn  skin,  sang  and  danced 
the  Bacchic  dance  round  the  large  vats  of  grape-juice. 
Messalina,  her  golden  hair  flowing  loose  under  her  ivy 
wreath,  shook  her  thyrsus  and  led  the  wild  dance.  Silius 
lay  at  her  feet,  crowned  with  ivy,  nodding  his  head  to  the  air 
of  the  lascivious  chorus.  Wine  flowed  freely  on  that  autumn 
afternoon,  and  the  gay  world  and  distant  Ostia  were  for- 
gotten ;  or  so  little  heeded  that  when  Vettius  Valens,  one 
of  Messalina's  discarded  lovers,  had,  in  boyish  exuberance, 
climbed  a  high  tree,  and  they  crowded  round  and  asked 
wh^t  he  saw,  he  gaily  cried  :  "  A  hurricane  from  Qstia." 


VALERIA  MESSAIJNA  75 

But  before  the  evening  was  out  the  hurricane  came  from 
Ostia  and  scattered  the  revellers  in  terror.  News  was 
brought  to  the  garden  that  Claudius  was  hurrying  to  Rome 
to  avenge  his  dishonour. 

The  freedman  Narcissus  had  disliked  the  idea  of  Silius 
obtaining  power,  especially  as  Messalina  had  recently 
taken  the  ominous  step  of  securing  the  execution  of  his 
colleague  Polybius.  In  the  suite  of  Claudius  at  Ostia 
were  two  female  attendants,  to  describe  them  courteously, 
Calpurnia  and  Cleopatra,  who  were  taken  into  counsel  by 
Narcissus,  and  learned  their  parts  in  his  scheme,  Calpur- 
nia flung  herself  at  the  feet  of  the  Emperor,  crying, 
"  Messalina  is  married  to  Silius."  Cleopatra  and  Narcissus 
were  summoned  by  the  Emperor,  and  they  assured  him 
that  his  life  was  in  danger,  and  he  must  hasten  to  Rome. 
Other  advisers,  who  had  been  trained  to  their  part  by 
Narcissus,  were  drawn  into  the  group,  and  the  dazed  and 
vacillating  Claudius  yielded  to  their  guidance.  He  was 
at  once  placed  in  his  chariot,  and  Vitellius  and  Narcissus 
rode  with  him.  Claudius  feebly  discussed  the  news  as 
they  travelled,  and  Vitellius,  not  sure  which  party  would 
triumph,  remained  silent ;  but  the  freedman  assiduously 
fed  the  slow-kindling  anger  of  the  Emperor. 

Silius  had  fled  from  the  Bacchanalian  garden  to  the 
Forum,  and  tried  to  conceal  his  part  by  a  zealous  absorp- 
tion in  business.  Messalina  saw  all  the  companions  of 
her  revels  fly  for  safety,  and  leave  her  to  face  the  storm 
alone  in  the  palace-garden.  From  the  disordered  relics 
of  the  feast  she  hurried  to  her  Lucullan  gardens  on  the 
Pincian.  There  her  courage  seems  to  have  revived,  and 
she  determined  to  make  an  effort  to  disarm  her  husband. 
Directing  the  head  of  the  Vestal  Virgins  to  follow  with 
her  children,  she  went  out  upon  the  road  which  entered 
Rome  from  Ostia.  The  news  had  now  spread  over  Rome. 
With  three  companions  only  out  of  the  gay  throng  of 
her  followers,  and  Vibidia,  the  Vestal  Virgin,  whose  person 
was  sacred,  she  braved  the  pitiless  gaze  of  the  citizens, 
who  had  so  long  seen  her  chariot  flash  by  in  triumph,  and 


'je  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

walked  on  foot  to  the  gate  of  the  city.  There  her  strength 
failed,  and  she  was  forced  to  mount  the  common  cart  of 
a  gardener.  When  they  had  covered  a  short  distance 
from  the  gates,  they  saw  the  Emperor's  chariot  approach- 
ing, and  she  dismounted.  Whether  from  real  affection 
for  her,  or  from  an  indolent  dislike  of  trouble,  Claudius 
hesitated  once  more  when  the  piteous  figure  of  his  young 
wife  appeared  in  his  path  ;  but  Narcissus  reminded  him 
of  her  marriage,  and  ordered  the  charioteer  to  drive  on. 
Her  last  despairing  appeal  was  unheeded.  The  chariot 
galloped  on,  and  left  her  standing  on  the  road.  A  little 
further  on  the  Vestal  Virgin,  relying  on  her  high  position, 
demanded  that  Claudius  should  grant  his  wife  an  oppor- 
tunity of  defending  herself,  and  thrust  his  children  before 
him.  The  sight  of  his  beloved  Octavia  and  Britannicus 
again  moved  the  wavering  Emperor.  Narcissus  bade  the 
charioteer  drive  onward,  and  Messalina  slowly  turned  to 
meet  her  fate  in  Rome. 

In  order  to  dispel  the  last  shade  of  tenderness  from 
the  Emperor's  mind.  Narcissus  conducted  him  first  to  the 
house  of  Silius,  and  showed  him  the  treasures  of  the 
Imperial  palace  which  Messalina  had  showered  on  her 
lover.  He  then  led  him  to  the  camp  of  the  Praetorian 
Guards,  and  induced  him  to  make  a  speech  to  the  soldiers. 
The  feeble  spirit  of  the  Emperor  was  cowed  by  the  full 
revelation  of  Messalina's  perfidy.  Now  completely  docile 
to  the  masterful  freedman,  he  took  his  place  at  the  tri- 
bunal, and  passed  sentence  of  death,  which  was  at  once 
carried  out,  on  Silius,  Mnester,  Vettius  Valens,  and  all 
Messalina's  accomplices.  Mnester  vainly  stripped  off  his 
robe,  to  show  that  he  had  received  from  the  Empress 
rather  the  imprint  of  her  anger  than  the  embraces  of 
which  he  was  accused.  The  Emperor  signed  the  doom 
of  all,  and  returned  wearily  to  the  palace.  Restored  by 
food  and  wine,  he  began  to  resist  the  dictation  of  Nar- 
cissus, and  ordered  him  to  inform  Messalina  that  he  would 
hear  her  on  the  morrow.  The  freedman  knew  that  a 
delay  would  ruin  his  design.     He  left  the  room,  and  told 


VALERIA  MESSALINA  fj 

the  guard  that  the  Emperor  had  commanded  the  imme- 
diate execution  of  his  wife. 

Messalina  had  returned  to  her  garden  on  the  Pincian, 
where  she  was  joined  by  her  mother.  Night  had  come 
on,  and  they  sat  in  an  arbour  debating  the  mad  brilhance 
of  the  past  and  the  terrible  gloom  of  the  future.  Domitia 
Lepida  felt  that  there  was  no  hope  of  recovering  the  favour 
of  Claudius,  and  urged  her  daughter  to  end  her  life  as 
Roman  tradition  prescribed.  Strong  only  in  her  clinging 
to  life,  like  most  of  the  other  frail  women  of  the  Julian 
house,  Messalina  fell  at  her  mother's  feet  and  sobbed. 
Presently  the  stillness  of  the  deserted  garden  was  broken 
by  the  tramp  of  soldiers  and  a  summons  at  the  gate.  Still 
Messalina  shrank  from  the  eternal  darkness  which  she 
had  so  suddenly  confronted.  Only  when  the  officer  of 
the  guard  told  her  the  order  that  Narcissus  had  given 
him,  and  the  freedman  who  had  come  with  the  guard 
began  insolently  to  revile  her  for  her  crimes,  did  she  take 
the  dagger  from  her  mother's  hands.  In  the  light  of  the 
single  lamp  of  the  arbour  the  little  group  looked  on  with 
pity  and  disdain,  as  the  nerveless  hands  of  Messalina 
lacerated  her  white  bosom  with  futile  gashes.  Then  the 
tribune  mercifully  drove  his  sword  through  her  heart. 
Her  children  came  up,  and  found  their  mother's  lifeless 
body  in  a  pool  of  blood. 

This  authentic  closing  of  the  career  of  Messalina  must 
dispose  us  to  think  that  there  may  be  little  or  no  exaggera- 
tion in  the  stories  that  are  told  of  her.  Stahr,  in  his 
brilliant  apologetic  study  of  the  Empresses,  ventures  to  say 
that  Seneca  did  not  reproduce  these  stories  about  Messa- 
lina because  he  knew  that  they  came  from  the  pen  of  an 
embittered  libeller;  and  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  Tacitus 
did  derive  much  of  his  material  from  the  memoirs  of  the 
woman  who  had  shrunk  from  the  vindictive  cruelty  ot 
Messalina,  and  came  in  time  to  replace  her.  But  so  much 
crime  is  authoritatively  laid  to  the  account  of  the  Empress, 
and  her  last  adventure  reveals  so  shameless  a  disregard  of 
either  law  or  decency,  that  not  a  single  detail  is  incredible 


78  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

or  improbable.  We  shall  find  such  excesses  ascribed  to 
later  Emperors,  by  writers  who  were  not  merely  recording 
rumours  that  may  have  gathered  volume  during  decades 
of  passage  from  mouth  to  mouth,  that  nothing  can  be 
deemed  impossible  to  a  Messalina.  The  humane  biographer 
can  but  plead  that  she  entered  a  world  of  the  most  dazzling 
allurement  of  vice  and  crime  with  a  nature  already  tainted 
and  distorted  by  the  sins  of  her  fathers,  and  that  the  horror 
of  that  last  scene  in  the  gardens  of  Lucullus  may  be  left 
as  a  merciful  shroud  over  her  unhappy  memory. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    MOTHER   OF   NERO 

TACITUS  has  given  us  a  spirited  picture  of  life  in  the 
Imperial  palace  during  the  months  which  followed 
the  execution  of  Messalina.  Claudius  himself  had 
sunk  into  a  state  of  drowsy  indifference  when  the  storm 
excited  by  his  discovery  had  spent  itself.  "  Where  is  the 
Empress?"  he  asked,  as  he  sat  at  supper  the  night  after 
her  death,  and  noticed  the  empty  place  on  the  couch. 
Narcissus  told  him  that  she  was  dead,  and  he  asked  no 
more.  But  the  palace  about  his  slumbering  figure  soon 
began  to  hum  with  conflicting  intrigues  for  the  succession 
to  her  chamber.  Ladies  who  had  visited  the  Palatine  with 
nervous  prudence  while  Messalina  lived  now  came  to  dis- 
play their  charms,  and  express  their  tenderness,  to  the 
doting  Emperor.  From  the  sombre  night  of  the  tragedy 
Rome  passed  with  relief  to  the  light  enjoyment  of  the  new 
comedy.  The  freedmen,  who  surrounded  and  controlled 
Claudius,  selected  their  candidates. 

Claudius  had  inserted  one  sentiment  of  his  own  in  the 
speech  which  Narcissus  had  induced  him  to  make  to  the 
Praetorian  Guards.  He  had  sworn  that  he  would  not 
marry  again.  There  were  ladies  in  his  household,  such  as 
Calpurnia  and  Cleopatra,  who  would  encourage  the  resolu- 
tion ;  but  the  freedmen  decided  that  he  was  bound  to 
capitulate  under  so  fair  a  siege,  and  it  would  be  better 
to  have  some  share  in  the  making  of  the  new  Empress. 
Each  of  the  Greeks  chose  a  different  lady.  Narcissus,  who 
had   been   promoted  to  high  public   service  for   his   zeal, 

79 


8o  THE  EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

favoured  the  suit  of  MVia.  Paetina,  whom  Claudius  had 
lightly  divorced  twenty-one  years  before.  Callistus  took 
up  the  cause  of  Lollia  Paulina,  the  wealthy  and  beautiful 
woman  whom  Caligula  had  torn  from  her  husband  and 
used  so  unjustly.  The  steward,  Pallas,  was  more  fortunate 
in  his  choice.  He  advocated  marriage  with  Agrippina  ; 
and,  as  the  mind  of  Agrippina  coincided  more  decisively 
with  that  of  her  champion  than  seems  to  have  happened 
in  the  case  of  her  rivals,  his  campaign  succeeded.  She 
discovered  a  most  tender  and  considerate  affection  for 
her  uncle,  visited  him  assiduously,  and  persuaded  him  to 
betroth  his  daughter  Octavia  to  her  son  Lucius  Domitius 
(later  Nero). 

Octavia  was  already  betrothed,  and  Agrippina  is  said 
to  have  removed  the  first  obstacle  to  her  designs  by  a  cruel 
and  unscrupulous  act.  We  are  told  that  she  induced, 
and  it  is  at  least  clear  that  she  permitted,  the  sycophantic 
courtier  Vitellius,  who  favoured  her  suit,  to  accuse  the 
young  man,  to  whom  Octavia  was  betrothed,  of  incest 
with  his  daughter-in-law.  Tacitus  has  so  mean  an  estimate 
of  the  young  people  and  their  generation  that  he  does 
not  regard  the  charge  as  a  serious  libel.  He  insists, 
however,  that  Agrippina  had  the  case  against  them  forged, 
and  thus  opened  her  dark  Imperial  career  with  a  crime. 

We  are  now  approaching  the  generation  in  which  the 
great  historian  lived,  and  we  are  considering  the  very 
woman  whose  memoirs  furnished  him  with  his  more 
serious  charges  against  her  rivals  and  predecessors.  It 
may  therefore  seem  strange  that,  if  we  are  to  follow  our 
authorities  with  docility,  we  must  ascribe  a  very  vicious 
and  unscrupulous  character  to  Agrippina  herself.  We  have 
rejected  the  rumour  that  she  poisoned  her  second  husband, 
but  that  is  by  no  means  the  only  charge  that  is  brought 
against  her  before  she  married  Claudius.  The  authorities 
uniformly  assert  that  she  had  had  incestuous  relations 
with  Caligula  in  her  early  teens,  had  been  notorious  for  her 
amours  during  the  life  of  Messalina,  and  now  very  flagrantly 
placed  such  honour  as  she  had  at  the  disposal  of  Claudius, 


THE  MOTHER  OF  NERO  8l 

These  charges  we  cannot  control.  We  shall  find  even 
more  serious  accusations  against  her  later,  and  shall  have 
to  regard  them  with  reserve  or  frank  incredulity.  It 
was  the  literary  fashion  to  make  a  consort  of  the  Caesars 
imperial  in  her  vices.  On  the  whole,  however,  we  are 
compelled  to  think  that  the  eldest  daughter  of  Agrippina 
and  Germanicus  had  the  taint  of  her  stock.  She  inherited 
the  virile  ambition  of  her  mother,  and  she  had  even  less 
scruple  in  pursuing  it.  The  best  that  can  be  said  for  her 
is  that  she  aimed  rather  at  making  the  future  of  her  son 
than  her  own.  And  when  that  son  proves  to  be  the 
Emperor  Nero,  the  murderer  of  his  mother,  we  are  disposed 
to  read  her  record  with  the  lenient  eye  of  pity. 

When  the  elder  Agrippina  had  been  banished  by 
Tiberius,  as  we  saw,  in  the  year  12  a.d.,  her  children 
were  brought  up  in  the  house  of  their  grandmother 
Antonia.  In  this  plain  home  of  old  Roman  virtue 
Caligula  is  said  to  have  infected  and  corrupted  all  his 
sisters.  Agrippina  left  it,  in  her  thirteenth  year,  to 
marry  Cn.  Domitius  Ahenobarbus.  As  the  authorities 
are  sharply  divided  in  regard  to  his  character,  we  cannot 
trace  his  influence  in  the  development  of  her  character. 
He  died  in  the  year  40,  leaving  her  with  a  three-year-old 
boy,  Lucius  Domitius.  Agrippina  was  still  a  young  and 
beautiful  woman,  and  is  said  to  have  availed  herself  of 
the  loose  morals  of  Roman  society  until,  as  we  saw,  the 
attitude  of  Messalina  forced  her  to  marry.  She  was  soon 
a  widow  for  the  second  time,  with  considerable  wealth.  Her 
ambition  revived  at  the  death  of  Messalina,  and  she  paid 
the  most  winning  and  flagrant  attentions  to  Claudius.  We 
should  go  beyond  the  letter  of  the  chronicles  if  we  sug- 
gested that  she  bribed  Vitellius  and  Pallas  to  promote  her 
suit.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  they  overcame  the  reluctance 
of  Claudius,  and  they  profited  materially  by  her  accession 
to  the  throne. 

Claudius  professed  that  he  had  a  scruple  about  marrying 
his  niece,  and  proposed  to  adopt  her  as  his  daughter. 
That  empty  honour  was   hardly  recompense  enough   for 

6 


82  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

the  daily  contemplation  of  his  senility  and  sensuality. 
Vitellius  induced  him  to  submit  his  delicate  feeling  to 
the  Senate  and  the  people,  and  then  artfully  represented 
to  the  Senators  that,  if  Claudius  married  Agrippina,  she 
might  rid  them  of  the  hated  influence  of  the  freedmen. 
Tacitus,  whose  disdain  for  the  obsequious  Senate  of  the 
early  Empire  always  aggravates  his  comments  on  their 
conduct,  describes  how  they  raced  each  other  to  the  palace 
to  inform  Claudius  of  their  decision,  and  how  the  people 
not  improbably  incited  by  Vitellius,  assembled  below  the 
Palatine  Hill  and  clamoured  for  the  marriage.  The  obtuse 
and  weak-willed  Claudius  assented,  and  a  few  days  later, 
in  the  year  49,  Agrippina  became  the  sixth  Empress  of 
Rome.  Little  did  she  dream  that  she  was  entering  upon 
the  last  decade  of  her  eventful  life,  and  that  it  would  close 
with  the  most  ghastly  horror. 

She  was  in  her  thirty-third  year,  Claudius  in  his  fifty- 
eighth.  Years  of  sensual  indulgence  had  not  improved 
his  character  or  his  intelligence,  and  no  one  in  Rome 
can  have  expected  him  to  live  more  than  the  few  years 
which  remained  for  him.  Agrippina  was  looking  to  the 
time  when  she  would  be  sole  mistress  of  the  Empire. 
The  fine  statue  of  her  which  is  exhibited  in  the  Lateran 
Museum  has  a  moral  physiognomy  so  concordant  with 
the  authentic  record  of  her  career  that  we  picture  her 
to  ourselves  with  confidence.  In  face  and  figure  she  is 
all  that  the  word  imperial  suggests  to  the  imagination. 
Haughty,  strong,  and  reposeful  in  her  self-reliance,  she 
has  lost  the  last  shade  of  apprehension  with  the  passing  of 
Messalina,  and  has  the  majestic  air  of  a  mistress  of  the 
world.  Her  low  brow  and  large,  finely-carved  oval  face 
are  said  by  some  physiognomists  to  have  every  mark 
of  purity  and  refinement,  but  the  close  observer  will  dis- 
cover in  her  features  only  such  a  refinement  of  passion 
as  her  ambition  would  lead  us  to  expect.  In  a  word,  it 
is  the  face  of  a  woman  who  will  not  stoop  to  vice  or  crime 
to  gratify  a  sensual  impulse,  but  may  have  recourse  to 
either  when  her  ambition  lends  it  a  certain  expediency. 


7 


\ 


/ 


7 


.A 


AGRIPPINA  THE  YOUNGER 

BUST,    MUS.    NAZ.,    NAPLES 


THE  MOTHER  OF  NERO  83 

The  career  of  Agrippina  shows  that  she  really  was  a 
moral  opportunist  of  this  character.  We  need  not  pass 
any  censure  on  her  ambition.  Unhappy  would  be  the 
State  in  which  men  and  women  were  not  at  times  fired 
by  the  impulse  to  exert  their  powers  more  energetically 
than  their  fellows.  But  it  is  impossible  to  ignore  the 
persistent  and  harmonious  statements  of  the  Latin  historians 
in  regard  to  the  way  in  which  Agrippina  pursued  her 
ambition.  We  may  overlook  the  amorous  adventures  of 
her  earlier  years ;  we  may  reject,  as  a  light  and  implausible 
rumour,  eagerly  caught  up  by  prurient  diarists,  the  charge 
that  she  made  any  dishonourable  advances  to  Claudius 
before  her  marriage,  or  to  the  steward  Pallas  or  her  son 
Nero  at  later  dates ;  and  we  may  hesitate  to  admit  that  she 
was  concerned  in  the  murder  of  Claudius.  But  we  cannot 
find  any  other  motive  than  a  not  too  nice  ambition  in  her 
marrying  the  aged  and  repulsive  Emperor,  and  we  have 
strong  reason  to  suspect  her  of  conduct  that  is  little  short 
of  criminal  in  many  of  the  events  that  follow. 

The  most  formidable  of  her  rivals  for  the  throne  had 
been  Lollia  Paulina.  Beautiful,  wealthy,  and  popular,  the 
former  wife  of  Caligula  seemed  to  threaten  Agrippina's 
security.  In  their  eagerness  to  avoid  the  rock  of  hereditary 
power  the  Romans  had  steered  their  vessel  into  the 
Charybdis  of  intrigue,  and  any  prominent  man  or  woman 
was  regarded  with  concern  by  the  one  who  wore  the 
purple,  or  aspired  to  wear  it.  Agrippina  had  a  strong  and 
legitimate  hope,  but  no  guarantee,  that  her  son  would 
succeed.  Messalina's  son,  young  Britannicus,  was  ailing 
and  epileptic,  and  was  generally  ignored  in  the  speculations 
as  to  the  succession.  It  was,  therefore,  quite  natural  that 
Roman  gossip  should  accuse  Agrippina  of  destroying 
Paulina,  and  Tacitus  is  not  less  generous  in  recording  the 
charges  against  her  than  in  admitting  her  slanders  against 
Livia.  He  affirms  positively  that  it  was  the  Empress  who 
persuaded  Claudius  to  have  Paulina  prosecuted  on  the 
charge  of  consulting  oracles  and  astrologers  as  to  the 
duration  of  his  marriage,  and  that,  when  her  property  was 


84  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

confiscated  and  she  was  sent  into  exile,  Agrippina  sent  a 
soldier  to  compel  her  to  commit  suicide.  Dio,  as  usual, 
improves  upon  the  narrative.  He  describes  Agrippina 
gloating  over  the  bleeding  head  of  her  rival,  as  Fulvia  had 
rejoiced  over  the  head  of  Cicero,  and  opening  the  mouth 
to  see  certain  peculiarities  of  the  teeth  by  which  it  might 
be  identified. 

The  fatal  defect  of  Dio's  more  vivid  account  is  that,  as 
we  know  from  Pliny,  the  double  canine  teeth,  of  which  he 
speaks,  belonged  to  Agrippina  herself,  not  to  Paulina,  and 
were  regarded  as  a  sure  presage  of  good  fortune.  The 
substance  of  the  story,  however,  we  cannot  lightly  reject. 
A  beautiful  and  happy  woman  was  driven  to  death  for  no 
graver  cause  than,  at  the  most,  an  idle  patronage  of  the 
Oriental  charlatans  who  then  abounded  in  Rome  ;  and,  since 
this  consultation  of  oracles  was  common,  there  must  have 
been  a  special  reason  for  the  selection  of  Paulina.  The 
motive  suggested  by  Tacitus  is  only  too  probable.  He 
adds  that  Agrippina  also  banished  a  lady  named  Calpurnia. 
If  we  may  identify  this  lady  with  the  Calpurnia  whose 
services  to  Claudius  were  so  amiable  as  to  embolden  her 
to  disclose  to  him  the  crimes  of  his  beloved  Messalina,  she 
would  hardly  remain  long  in  the  palace  of  Agrippina. 

Apart  from  such  episodes  as  these,  in  which  jealousy 
or  avarice  led  her  to  make  an  unworthy  use  of  her  power, 
she  ruled  judiciously  and  serviceably.  Claudius  was  in  his 
sixtieth  year.  His  poor  mind  was  in  complete  decay,  and 
it  was  both  fitting  and  useful  that  Agrippina  should  rule 
in  his  name.  The  coinage  of  the  time  bears  witness  of  her 
activity.  There  is,  in  fact,  a  living  memorial  of  her  rule 
in  the  city  of  Cologne,  which,  under  the  title  of  Colonia 
Agrippina,  she  established  as  an  outpost  of  civilization  on 
the  farthest  confines  of  the  Empire.  She  gave  dignity  and 
etiquette  to  the  easy-going  court  of  Claudius,  had  the  right 
to  enter  the  precincts  of  the  Capitol  and  to  ride  in  the 
gilded  imperial  chariot  of  ceremony,  and,  when  the  famous 
British  prince  Caractacus  was  brought  to  Rome,  her  throne 
was  raised  by  the  side  of  that  of  the  Emperor.     The  older 


THE   MOTHER   OF  NERO  85 

Roman  idea  of  woman's  sphere  was  now  discredited  by 
the  philosophers  and  cojitemptuously  ignored  by  the 
women  themselves,  but  the  citizens  moved  slowly,  and 
there  was  much  discontent  and  consulting  of  astrologers. 
They  were  expelled  from  the  city,  but  in  the  guarded 
chambers  of  patrician  families  they  continued,  in  imposing 
Chaldaean  dress,  to  scan  horoscopes  and  wave  preternatural 
wands  over  their  symbolical  tripods — much  as  they  do  in 
Bond  Street  to-day.  The  more  enlightened  reader,  who 
is  disposed  to  regard  the  superstition  with  leniency,  must 
reflect  that  the  prophets  might  at  times,  for  the  vindication 
of  their  art,  be  tempted  to  lend  a  little  human  aid  when 
nature  tarried  in  bringing  about  the  deaths  which  the 
planets  had  so  plainly  foretold. 

Within  the  palace  the  whole  care  of  Agrippina  was 
centred  in  the  education  of  her  son  for  the  purple.  To  the 
delight  of  Rome,  she  recalled  the  philosopher  Seneca  from 
exile,  and  gave  him  charge  of  her  son's  studies.  When 
the  real  character  of  Nero  was  revealed  in  later  years,  it 
was  said  that  Seneca  had  always  disliked  his  task,  and  had 
even  predicted  that  the  boy  would  become  a  savage  monster. 
Seneca  himself  merely  says  that  the  boy  was  spoiled,  and 
his  training  thwarted,  by  his  mother.  Nero  would  fly  to 
Agrippina  when  Seneca  had  made  some  attempt  to  check 
his  wayward  impulses,  and  the  whole  lesson  would  be 
lost  in  her  injudicious  caresses.  Apart  from  this  not 
unnatural  weakness,  Agrippina  made  the  most  commend- 
able eff'orts  to  prepare  her  son  for  the  throne.  The  corrupt 
tutor  whom  Messalina  had  brought  to  the  palace  was 
dismissed — Dio  says  that  he  was  executed  for  attempting 
the  life  of  Lucius  Domitius — to  make  way  for  the  most 
distinguished  moralist  of  the  time,  and  the  military  instruc- 
tion was  entrusted  to  Burrus,  whose  integrity  we  shall 
learn  presently.  Pallas  was  rewarded  with  such  honours 
as  no  freedmen  had  ever  borne  before,  and  Vitellius  was 
rescued  from  some  obscure  charge  of  conspiracy  and 
restored  to  his  rank. 

Agrippina  was  now  in  a  position  of  very  great  wealth 


86  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

and  power.    She  drove  about  Rome  in  a  superb  chariot, 
flaunted   the   stored   jewels  of   the    Imperial   house,   and 
received  presents  from  the  ends  of  the  earth.    A  white 
nightingale,  which  had  cost  6,000  sesterces,  and  a  talking 
thrush  were  amongst  the  rare  presents  sent  to  conciliate 
her.    The  lingering  of  Claudius  must  have  been  irksome 
.    to  her,  but  it  was  necessary  to  secure  the   succession  of 
(^  her  son  before  the   Emperor  died.      The    one   apparent 
obstacle  was    the   boy   Britannicus,   who,  as  the  son   of 
Claudius  and   Messalina,  had  a  juster  title  to  be  chosen. 
He  was,   however,   subject    to    epileptic    fits,   delicate    in 
health,  and  peevish  in  temper.    Agrippina  had  little  diffi- 
culty in  thrusting  him  aside  in  favour  of  her  own  handsome 
and   engaging   boy.     The   toga  virilis,  or  garment   of  the 
man,   was   usually  donned   by  the   Roman   youth   in   his 
seventeenth  year,  but  the  age  was  anticipated  in  the  case 
of  princes,  and  Domitius  was  to  receive  it  at  the  end  of 
the  year  50.     During  the  year,  however,  the  convulsions 
of  nature  so  plainly  portended  some  momentous   event, 
probably  the  passage  of  Claudius  to  join  his  divine  fore- 
runners, that  Agrippina  pressed  for  the  immediate  perform- 
ance of  the  rite.     Three  suns  were  seen  in  the  sky,  an 
earthquake  shook  the  solid  earth,  and  birds  of  evil  omen 
rested   on   the  temple.     Claudius  assented,  and  manhood 
and   other   high   distinctions  were  prematurely  conferred 
on  the  future  Emperor,  whose  name  was  changed  to  Nero. 
He  joined  the  priestly  college,  received  the  authority  of 
a  proconsul,  marched  at  the  head  of  the  guards,  and  drew 
the  attention  of  all  at  the  games  by  the  insignia  of  his 
manly  dignities,  while  Britannicus  sat  in  the  prcetexta  and 
bulla  of  the  boy.     It  was  Nero  who  pleaded  in  the  Senate 
for  distressed   cities,  Nero  who  was   made   praetor  when 
Claudius  was  absent  from  Rome.     In  the  year  52  he  was 
married  to  Octavia,  and  all  Rome  regarded  him  as  the 
virtual  heir  to  the  throne. 

There  can  be  no  serious  doubt  that  Agrippina  had  no 
affection  for  Claudius,  and  must  have  waited  impatiently 
for  his  removal  when  the  succession  was  secured  for  her 


THE  MOTHER  OF  NERO  87 

son.  Certainly  Rome  held  that  view,  and  interpreted  the 
events  of  the  succeeding  years  in  accordance  with  it. 
We  must  therefore  be  prepared  to  find  much  libellous 
conjecture  in  the  chronicles  about  this  time.  Serviez,  who 
can  never  resist  the  fascination  of  scandal,  gives  us  a 
lively  picture  of  Agrippina  stooping  to  any  expedient 
course  of  vice  or  crime  in  the  furtherance  of  her  ambition. 
We  may  have  to  tell  a  less  romantic  story,  but  it  will  be 
romantic  enough. 

It  is  clear  that  the  Empress  now  entered  into  a  conflict 
with  Narcissus,  the  freedman  who  had  ruined  Messalina, 
and  had  then  favoured  the  suit  of  JEWa.  Paetina  in  opposi- 
tion to  her  own.  Her  critics  suggest  that  she  wished  to 
remove  this  faithful  servant  in  order  to  attempt  the  life  of 
the  Emperor  more  easily,  but  the  suggestion  is  superfluous. 
Narcissus  had  found  the  rival  freedman  Pallas  raised  to 
such  high  honours,  and  felt  that  his  own  service  in  exposing 
Messalina  had  been  so  soon  forgotten,  that  he  clearly 
intrigued  against  Agrippina.  Tacitus  says  that  it  was 
he  who  spread  the  rumour,  which  reached  the  ears  of 
Claudius,  that  Agrippina  was  too  intimate  with  Pallas. 
We  are  quite  unable  to  examine  the  truth  or  untruth  of 
this  charge,  and  may  dismiss  it.  Agrippina  took  an  early 
occasion  to  attack  and  discredit  the  Greek.  In  the  centre 
of  the  Italian  hills  was  a  sheet  of  water,  the  Fucine  Lake, 
which  had  no  regular  outlet,  and  often  caused  disastrous 
floods.  Claudius  ordered  that  a  channel  should  be  made 
to  conduct  its  superfluous  water  to  the  river,  and  celebrated 
the  opening  of  it,  in  the  year  52,  with  a  naval  battle  on 
the  lake.  Three  thrones  were  erected  :  one  for  the  nodding, 
heavy-paunched  Emperor,  who  had  somehow  been  squeezed 
into  glittering  armour,  one  for  Agrippina,  in  her  robes  of 
gold  cloth,  and  one  for  Nero. 

The  play  did  not  run  smoothly,  and  Agrippina  did  not 
spare  Narcissus,  who  controlled  it.  The  great  ships  drew 
up  before  the  Emperor,  and  the  men  who  were  about  to 
risk  or  lose  their  lives  to  entertain  him  rang  out  the 
usual  salutation.     Forgetting  that  if  he  returned  the  salute 


88  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

he  absolved  them  from  their  dangerous  duty,  Claudius 
hailed  them,  and  they  claimed  the  right  to  abstain.  The 
Emperor  is  described  by  Suetonius  as  running  alongside  the 
lake,  angrily  urging  them  to  fight.  The  battle  proceeded, 
but  at  the  close  it  was  found  that  the  water  could  not 
be  released,  and  Narcissus  was  bitterly  assailed.  The 
performance  was  repeated  later,  when  the  works  were 
pronounced  complete,  but  a  number  of  people  were 
drowned,  and  the  quarrel  was  renewed  with  spirit.  Agrip- 
pina  suggested  that  the  funds  for  the  undertaking  had  been 
diverted ;  Narcissus  foiled  the  attack  with  a  charge  of 
ambition  against  the  Empress. 

The  Emperor  was  visibly  failing,  and  there  was  great 
excitement  at  Rome  when,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  54, 
nature  announced  once  more  that  some  stirring  chapter 
was  to  run  from  the  reel  of  the  fates.  The  standards  and 
tents  of  the  soldiers  were  enveloped  in  mysterious  flames ; 
a  rain  of  blood,  in  which  a  modern  naturalist  would  doubt- 
less discover  an  innocent  microbe,  spread  terror  over  one 
part  of  the  Empire,  and  the  birth  of  a  pig  with  claws  like 
those  of  a  hawk  caused  equal  consternation  in  another ; 
whil^  Rome  heard,  with  reiterated  shocks,  that  the  doors 
of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  had  been  opened  by  unseen  hands, 
and  a  horrible  comet,  followed  by  the  customary  pestilence, 
had  appeared  in  its  skies.  More  significant  still  to  prudent 
people,  perhaps,  was  the  report  that  Claudius,  returning 
to  dine  at  the  palace  after  presiding  at  the  trial  of  an 
adultress,  gloomily  observed  that  he  had  been  unfortunate 
in  his  marriages  ;  he  had  punished  one  unfaithful  wife,  and 
would  know  how  to  deal  with  another. 

In  this  observation  of  Claudius  we  need  see  no  more 
than  an  echo  of  the  whispers  of  Narcissus,  but  one  can 
imagine  how  Rome  must  have  throbbed  with  expectation 
and  abounded  in  gossip  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  54. 
Nor  was  this  faith  in  natural  oracles  disappointed.  Two 
tragedies  were  added  to  the  sombre  chronicle  of  the  city 
in  that  year,  and  in  both  of  them  our  Empress  is  accused 
of  having  acted  criminally. 


THE   MOTHER   OF  NERO  89 

The  first  was  the  condemnation  to  death  of  one  of  the 
greatest  ladies  of  Rome,  Domitia  Lepida,  sister-in-law  of 
the  Empress ;  and  in  this  case  there  is  every  reason  to 
suspect  a  guilty  action  on  the  part  of  Agrippina.  When 
Agrippina  had  been  exiled  by  Caligula,  her  boy  had  lived 
for  a  few  years  with  his  father's  sister,  Domitia  Lepida, 
the  mother  of  Messalina.  Lepida  was  far  more  indulgent 
even  than  Agrippina  to  the  pretty  and  wayward  child, 
and,  when  the  mother  returned  to  Rome  and  he  was 
restored  to  her,  there  was  an  acrimonious  struggle  between 
the  two  women  for  his  affection.  As  it  became  clear  that 
he  would  inherit  the  purple,  the  struggle  became  more 
passionate.  Narcissus  saw  in  it  an  opportunity  to  escape 
the  ruin  which  would  befall  him  if  Agrippina  obtained 
full  power,  and,  on  the  ground  of  his  charge  of  incon- 
stancy against  the  Empress,  he  urged  Claudius  to  make 
Lepida  guardian  of  Nero.  It  is  very  probable  that  this 
intrigue  of  Narcissus  is  the  only  source  of  the  charge 
of  license  brought  against  the  Empress  in  her  mature 
years. 

Angry  and  anxious,  in  view  of  the  expected  death  of 
Claudius,  she  took  a  bold  step,  and  impeached  Lepida 
of  criminal  conduct.  How  far  Lepida  was  guilty  we  can- 
not say,  but  as  she  was  charged  only  with  assailing  the 
Emperor's  marriage  with  imprecations,  and  exercising  so 
little  control  over  her  Calabrian  slaves  as  to  endanger 
the  public  peace,  the  prudent  reader  will  acquit  Agrippina 
of  anything  more  than  an  exaggeration  of  the  facts.  That 
exaggeration  sufficed,  however,  to  ruin  her  distinguished 
rival.  Nero,  schooled  by  his  mother,  gave  witness  that 
his  aunt  had  tried  to  alienate  his  affection ;  her  very 
natural  comments  on  the  Emperor's  marriage  were  made 
to  assume  the  dark  form  of  magical  imprecations  ;  she 
was  condemned  to  death. 

But  those  lively  convulsions  of  nature  had  portended 
something  more  momentous  than  the  death  of  a  noble 
matron,  and  Rome  continued  to  wait  for  the  great  tragedy. 
Before  long  it  was  announced  that  Narcissus  had  retired 


90  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

to  Sinuessa  for  the  treatment  of  his  gout.'  The  Emperor 
was  now  entirely  surrounded  by  adherents  of  Agrippina, 
and  we  can  quite  understand  the  conviction  of  Rome 
when  Claudius  was  taken  seriously  ill  at  a  banquet,  and 
died  within  twenty-four  hours.  Tacitus  emphatically 
attributes  his  death  to  his  wife.  Suetonius  alone  says 
that,  while  it  was  certain  that  Claudius  was  poisoned,  it 
was  not  certain  who  was  guilty;  a  feeble  reserve,  since 
Agrippina  was  so  predominantly  interested  in  his  death. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  recent  historians  have  generally 
followed  Tacitus.  Roergas  de  Serviez,  who  rarely  has 
such  ample  authority  for  the  crimes  he  loves  to  attribute, 
fastens  the  murder  on  Agrippina  without  the  least  hesita- 
tion. Merivale  sees  no  ground  to  question  it,  though  he 
points  out  several  inconsistencies  in  the  pages  of  Tacitus. 
Mr.  Henderson  follows  the  traditional  story  in  his  recent 
and  discriminating  study  of  the  reign  of  Nero.^  But  Mr. 
Baring-Gould  insists  that  the  death  of  Claudius  was  quite 
natural,  and  any  candid  student  of  the  evidence  must 
admit  that  it  is  inconclusive. 

The  facts  are  that  on  October  12th,  a.d.  54,  Claudius 
attended  a  banquet  of  the  priestly  college  with  Agrippina. 
After  eating  some  mushrooms  (or  figs,  according  to  others) 
from  a  dish  that  was  served,  he  became  violently  ill  and 
vomited.  He  was  taken  back  to  the  palace,  attended  by 
his  (and  Agrippina's)  physician,  but  gradually  sank,  and 
died  on  the  morning  of  the  13th.  The  theory  of  the 
opponents  of  Agrippina  is  that  she  employed  a  notorious 
poisoner,  Locusta— a  Gaulish  woman,  who  was  certainly 
in  Rome  at  the  time,  and  was  afterwards  employed  by 
Nero — to  concoct  a  slow  poison  ("  a  drug  that  would 
disturb  his  mind  and  inflict  a  slow  death,"  says  Tacitus). 
This  is  supposed  to  have  been  inserted  in  a  fine  mushroom 
(or  fig),  which  was  taken   by  Claudius  when  Agrippina 

'  Tacitus,  who  is  followed  by  Merivale  and  other  historians,  makes 
Claudius  also  retire  to  Sinuessa.  This  is  probably  an  error,  an  the  Emperor 
fell  ill  and  died  at  Rome. 

•  "  The  Life  and  Principate  of  the  Emperor  Nero,'  1903, 


THE   MOTHER   OF   NERO  91 

had  eaten  one  from  the  dish  to  encourage  him.  He  fell 
back  and  began  to  vomit,  and  the  theory  runs  that  Agrip- 
pina,  fearing  that  he  might  recover  and  suspect  her,  called 
in  the  physician  Xenophon,  a  dependent  of  hers,  who 
tickled  the  Emperor's  throat  with  a  poisoned  feather  and 
made  an  end  of  him. 

Mr.  Baring-Gould  points  out  that,  since  Tacitus  ex- 
pressly describes  the  poison  as  **  slow,"  Agrippina  could 
hardly  be  surprised  and  alarmed  when  it  did  not  take 
immediate  effect.  He  concludes  that  Claudius  contracted 
a  violent  indigestion  from  eating  too  many  figs.  This  is 
no  more  convincing  than  the  opposite  theory.  An  attack 
of  vomiting,  whether  from  a  natural  cause  or  as  an  un- 
intended effect  of  poison,  might  easily  alarm  Claudius, 
who  was  very  suspicious,  and  so  induce  Agrippina  to  act. 
An  attack  of  indigestion,  on  the  other  hand,  would  hardly 
have  so  violent  and  immediate  an  effect.  The  circumstance 
of  tickling  his  throat  with  a  feather  to  cause  a  vomit,  and 
at  the  same  time  introducing  poison,  is  puzzling ;  but  it 
was  an  age  of  skill  in  poisoning,  and  the  leat  may  have 
been  possible.  The  question  must  remain  open.  The 
discrepancies  in  the  narrative  are  not  fatal  to  it,  but  the 
story  itself  is  no  more  than  a  retailing  of  Roman  gossip, 
which  was  at  all  times  more  prurient  than  scrupulous. 
The  problem  really  turns  on  the  character  of  Agrippina, 
and  this  is  ambiguous  enough  to  make  us  hesitate.  One 
may  scan  the  record  of  her  career  with  the  most  pene- 
trating charity  without  discovering  any  plain  indication 
of  high  character,  while  the  ruin  of  Lollia  Paulina,  Domitia 
Lepida,  and  others,  may  be  confidently  traced  to  her.  We 
can  only  conclude  that  she  was  quite  capable  of  accelerating 
the  death  of  her  husband,  and  would  have  no  light  interest 
in  doing  so ;  but  the  circumstances  of  his  death  are  quite 
consistent  with  the  kindlier  view  that  it  was  due  to  his 
own  intemperance.  We  have  not  yet,  however,  reached 
the  close  of  her  career,  and  it  may  be  felt  that  her  conduct 
after  the  death  of  Claudius  confirms  the  darker  estimate 
of  her  character. 


02  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

The  malcontents  of  Rome  would  be  sure  to  agitate  in 
favour  of  Britannicus  unless  the  succession  was  secured 
for  Nero  before  the  death  of  Claudius  was  known.  The 
art  with  which  Agrippina  averted  this  danger  may  excite 
our  admiration  of  her  virility  and  astuteness,  but  must 
inevitably  lessen  our  appreciation  of  her  sensibility.  She 
announced  that  Claudius  was  dangerously  ill,  and  called 
an  assembly  of  the  Senate.  Conscious  that  the  servants 
of  a  palace  commonly  draw  their  pay  from  some  one 
without,  she  put  guards  at  every  approach  to  the  chamber 
of  the  dead  man,  and  devised  and  carried  out  a  tragi- 
comedy of  the  most  extraordinary  character.  The  clothes 
were  drawn  over  the  lifeless  body,  bandages  and  poultices 
were  ostentatiously  applied  to  it  by  her  servants,  and  even 
the  mimes,  who  had  been  wont  to  dance  and  ring  their 
bells  and  crack  their  jokes  before  the  Emperor,  were 
brought  in  to  perpetrate  their  follies  in  the  chamber  of 
death.  In  a  neighbouring  room  Agrippina  joined  her 
conjugal  sobs  with  the  laments  of  the  youthful  Britan- 
nicus. We  are  asked  to  believe,  and  we  have  little  diffi- 
culty in  believing,  that  while  she  clung  in  tears  to  the 
weeping  youth,  she  was  merely,  with  cold  calculation, 
preventing  him  from  leaving  the  palace,  lest  he  should 
fall  in  the  way  of  the  Guards,  or  some  ambitious  partisan, 
and  be  proclaimed  Emperor. 

By  noon  the  preparations  of  her  agents  were  completed. 
The  gates  of  the  palace  were  thrown  open,  and  Nero  was 
sent  out,  under  the  care  of  his  military  tutor  Burrus,  the 
commander  of  the  Guards.  A  few  voices  were  heard  to 
mutter  the  name  of  Britannicus,  but  the  cry  was  feeble, 
and  the  response  insignificant.  The  Guards  were  long 
accustomed  to  see  the  superiority  of  Nero  over  the 
sickly  young  prince,  and  their  support  was  secured  by 
a  liberal  promise  of  money.  They  conducted  Nero  to 
the  Senate,  and  bade  that  helpless  body  accept  him. 
The  same  evening  a  courier  from  Agrippina  brought 
word  to  Sinuessa  that  Nero  was  Emperor.  Narcissus 
had  lost,  and  his  figure  passes  from  the  scene — with  the 


THE   MOTHER   OF  NERO  93 

inevitable  rumour  that  he  was   imprisoned   or   poisoned 
by  Agrippina. 

When  the  Guards  came  to  Nero  that  night  for  the 
watchword  he  gave  them  "  The  best  of  mothers,"  and 
Agrippina  looked  confidently  from  her  supreme  height 
into  the  future.  Within  five  years  her  son  would  put  her 
to  death  with  horrible  brutality,  and  jeer  at  her  naked 
body.  No  one  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  who  hailed 
him  with  the  wildest  delight,  and  smiled  at  his  amiable 
irregularities,  can  have  foreseen  so  rapid  and  portentous 
a  degradation.  He  was  then  a  youth  of  seventeen,  strik- 
ingly handsome  both  in  face  and  figure,  with  blue-grey 
eyes  and  light  curly  hair  and  finely  proportioned  limbs. 
His  tutor  in  arms  pronounced  him  "  a  young  Apollo." 
But  his  moral  and  intellectual  trainer  had  failed  as  signally 
as  his  physical  trainer  had  succeeded.  Seneca  had  vainly 
endeavoured  to  implant  in  his  mind  the  germs  of  the 
noble  Stoic  philosophy.  Men  have  disputed  from  all  time 
whether  it  was  the  teacher  or  the  doctrine  that  was  at 
fault,  while  the  eugenic  school  of  our  time  would  relieve 
both  from  censure,  and  regard  Nero's  mind  as  an  incur- 
ably corrupt  soil.  One  may  venture  to  differ  from  both, 
and  wonder  if  circumstances  had  not  the  greater  share 
in  his  demoralization.  However  that  may  be,  his  accession 
to  irresponsible  power  at  such  an  age,  in  such  surround- 
ings as  we  shall  discover  about  him,  was  a  tragedy. 
His  real  advisers  were  young  men,  slightly  older  than 
himself,  and  better  versed  in  the  ways  of  luxury  and  vice ; 
and  the  first  use  he  made  of  his  Imperial  power  was  to 
toss  aside  the  treatises  of  the  moralists,  and  give  his 
whole  attention  to  art,  to  chariot-racing,  and  to  dissipation. 
What  sinister  use  he  made  of  the  later  hours,  or  earlier 
hours,  of  the  day,  and  in  what  melancholy  condition  his 
girl-wife  must  have  been,  we  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter. 
Here  we  have  to  consider  only  his  relations  with  his 
mother. 

For  a  few  years  after  Nero's    accession    his    mother 
willingly  and  profitably  ruled   in  his  name.     It  must  not 


94  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

be  imagined  that  she  had,  with  the  astuteness  of  a  Marie 
de'  Medici,  educated  him  in  an  indifference  to  politics  so 
that  she  might  indulge  her  own  ambition.  The  appoint- 
ment of  Seneca  as  his  tutor  is  the  most  creditable,  though 
unhappily  the  most  futile,  act  of  her  career.  When,  how- 
ever, the  young  Emperor  refused  to  be  interested  in  any 
problem  graver  than  the  art  of  driving  a  chariot  or  playing 
the  flute,  she  undertook  his  Imperial  duties,  or  continued 
to  have  that  share  in  the  ruling  of  the  Empire  which  she 
had  had  under  Claudius.  She  received  embassies,  was 
surrounded  by  a  special  German  guard  when  she  went 
abroad,  and  was  associated  with  Nero  on  the  coinage.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  measure  with  any  precision  the  in- 
fluence which  she  had  on  Roman  affairs  during  this  period, 
since  Seneca  and  Burrus  had  an  equal,  if  not  greater,  part 
in  the  government ;  but  it  may  be  recalled,  with  some 
honour  to  her,  that  the  first  four  years  of  Nero's  reign  were 
amongst  the  happiest  and  most  prosperous  that  Rome 
witnessed  during  the  first  century. 

The  first  thing  to  trouble  her  prosperous  and  happy 
use  of  power  was  a  certain  discontent  arising  from  the  old 
prejudice  against  women  in  politics.  The  Senators  were 
annoyed  because  she  injudiciously  hstened  to  their  debates. 
They  met  at  this  time  in  the  Imperial  library,  and  the 
Empress  had  a  door  pierced  into  it  from  the  palace,  and 
sat  listening  behind  a  curtain.  The  Senators  are  said  to 
have  punished  her  indiscretion  by  making  unflattering 
remarks  in  the  course  of  the  debates,  though  it  is  difficult 
to  believe  that  they  were  still  capable  of  so  courageous  a 
protest.  On  one  occasion  an  important  embassy  came  to 
Rome  from  Armenia,  and  Agrippina  declared  that  she 
would  sit  by  the  side  of  Nero  when  he  received  it.  This 
seems  to  have  been  a  startling  innovation,  and  Seneca  had 
to  avert  trouble  by  advising  Nero  to  descend  from  his 
throne,  when  his  mother  entered,  and  lead  her  affectionately 
from  the  room. 

An  incident  that  shortly  occurred  gave  a  nucleus  for  the 
crystallization  of  this  diffused  anno3'ance.     A  distinguished 


THE   MOTHER  OF  NERO  95 

noble,  Junius  Silanus,  died,  and  the  familiar  whisper  of 
foul  play  went  once  more  through  all  classes  of  the  citizens. 
His  brother  Lucius  Silanus  was  the  young  noble  who  had 
been  betrothed  to  Octavia,  and  had  so  cruelly  been 
separated  from  her  by  Agrippina,  Was  it  not  natural 
that  Junius  Silanus  should  wish  to  avenge  his  younger 
brother,  and  that  Agrippina  should  detect  his  plot  and 
have  him  removed  ?  Tacitus  and  Dio  fully  believed  this. 
As  in  so  many  of  these  cases,  however,  the  only  ground 
for  the  charge,  as  far  as  we  know,  is  the  fact  that  Silanus 
undoubtedly  died,  and  we  will  not  waste  time  in  discussing 
it.  The  Senator  had  so  little  of  the  conspirator  in  him 
that  even  Caligula  used  to  call  him  "  the  golden  sheep." 
But  Rome  was  convinced  that  the  Empress  was  guilty,  and 
the  story  spread,  and  is  fully  accepted  by  Tacitus,  that  she 
meditated  a  long  series  of  executions  of  the  men  who  had 
opposed  her  progress,  and  that  Seneca  and  Burrus  had  to 
restrain  her  bloody  vindictiveness. 

One  may  decline  to  accept  this  charge  on  such  poor 
and  disputable  evidence ;  but  Agrippina  now  incurred  the 
anger  of  her  son,  and  descended  rapidly  from  the  height 
of  her  power.  The  young  Emperor  had,  as  1  said,  used 
his  Imperial  license  to  ignore  his  tutors  and  indulge  his 
low  and  sensual  tastes.  He  attracted  to  his  side  a  band  of 
the  most  dissipated  youths  in  the  city,  and  his  nightly 
exploits  were  the  talk  of  Rome.  One  of  the  less  hurtful 
of  his  indulgences  was  his  passion  for  Acte,  a  beautiful 
freed  slave  from  the  Eastern  market,  whom  Dumas  has 
made  familiar.  Agrippina  resented  the  liaison — apparently 
from  a  sense  of  justice  to  Octavia — and  rebuked  Nero.  He 
turned  on  her  with  violence  the  moment  she  tried  to  check 
his  licentious  ways,  and  threatened  to  discharge  her 
favourite  Pallas.  Agrippina  was  alarmed.  She  saw  a 
powerful  party,  deeply  hostile  to  herself,  growing  up  about 
her  son,  and  she  felt  that  the  support  of  Seneca  and  Burrus 
was  being  withdrawn.  She  ceased  to  speak  of  Acte,  and 
regarded  with  silent  distress  the  coarse  ways  that  her  son 
was  exhibiting  on  the  streets  every  night.     A  reconciliation 


96  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

at  this  heavy  price  could  not  last.  Shortly  afterwards 
Nero  sent  her  some  rich  jewels  and  robes  from  the  Imperial 
treasures.  She  chose  to  regard  this  as  a  reminder  that 
the  Imperial  wardrobe  was  no  longer  at  her  disposal,  and 
angrily  refused  the  gifts. 

Pallas  was  at  once  impeached  for  treason.  The  charge 
was  so  clumsy,  and  Seneca  defended  him  so  ably,  that  he 
had  to  be  acquitted ;  but  Agrippina  forgot  discretion  in 
her  victory.  In  the  course  of  a  quarrel  with  Nero,  she 
threatened  to  retire  to  the  camp  of  the  Praetorian  Guard 
with  Britannicus  and  have  him  proclaimed  Emperor.  The 
only  effect  of  this  was  to  open  Nero's  long  career  of  crime. 
The  few  months — we  are  still  at  the  beginning  of  the 
year  55 — of  unrestrained  license  and  flattery  had  destroyed 
the  little  moral  restraint  that  Seneca  had  taught  him,  and 
he  determined  to  murder  Britannicus.  In  the  Roman 
prison  was  the  skilled  poisoner,  Locusta,  whom  Agrippina 
was  believed  to  have  employed  in  the  murder  of  her 
husband.  Nero  ordered  her  to  prepare  a  deadly  poison, 
and,  when  the  first  preparation  failed,  he  had  her  brought 
to  the  palace.  With  blows  and  oaths  he  forced  her  to 
prepare  a  more  deadly  drug  under  his  eyes,  and  it  was 
used  the  same  evening.  Britannicus  sat  with  his  friends 
on  one  of  the  couches  in  the  dining-hall  at  the  palace,  and 
asked  for  a  drink.  It  was  winter-time,  and  the  wine  (not 
soup,  as  Serviez  says)  was  heated.  He  complained  that  it 
was  too  hot,  and  the  poison  was  administered  with  the 
cooling  water,  so  that  the  taster  would  not  need  to  take 
a  second  sip. 

A  great  horror  fell  upon  the  room  as  Britannicus,  writh- 
ing with  pain,  sank  to  the  floor.  Octavia  sat  in  silent  terror 
by  the  side  of  her  husband,  who  carelessly  observed  that 
Britannicus  had  one  of  his  usual  epileptic  fits.  Agrippina 
openly  betrayed  her  horror  and  disgust,  and  from  that  date 
was  regarded  by  her  son  with  bitter  hostility.  Whether 
or  no  it  be  true  that  Nero  whitened  with  chalk  the  spots 
which  broke  out  on  the  body,  the  substance  of  the  story 
cannot  be  discredited.     It  is  true  that  Nero  was  yet  in  his 


THE   MOTHER   OF   NERO  97 

eighteenth  year  only,  but  his  conduct  had  been  vicious  and 
unbridled  to  a  criminal  extent.  Within  a  very  short  time 
we  shall  find  him  sinking  to  the  lowest  depths  of  brutality. 
The  fact  that  he  is  praised  in  the  treatise  "  On  Clemency," 
which  Seneca  wrote  about  that  time,  can  only  show  either 
that  the  too  indulgent  tutor  refused  to  believe  the  crime,  or 
that,  as  we  have  too  many  reasons  to  know,  the  distinguished 
Stoic  came  perilously  close  to  that  art  of  casuistry  in  which 
moralists  of  many  schools  have  been  apt  to  excel. 

In  her  abhorrence  of  the  foul  deed  Agrippina  drew 
closer  to  the  tender  and  virtuous  Octavia,  and  confronted 
Nero  with  a  sternness  that  had  been  too  long  delayed. 
The  breach  between  them  widened.  One  day  Nero  ordered 
that  two  and  a  half  million  denarii  should  be  given  to  his 
favourite  secretary.  Agrippina  had  the  mass  of  coin  brought 
under  the  eyes  of  the  Emperor,  to  make  him  realize  his 
extravagance.  He  laughingly  observed  that  he  did  not 
think  the  sum  was  so  small,  and  ordered  it  to  be  doubled. 
The  more  lavishly  he  squandered,  the  more  carefully 
Agrippina  saved,  until  the  frivolous  or  malicious  companions 
of  his  revels  suggested  that  she  was  gathering  funds  for  the 
purpose  of  dethroning  him.  He  at  once  withdrew  the  guard 
he  had  given  her,  and  ordered  her  to  leave  his  palace. 

Agrippina  had  enjoyed  only  for  one  year  the  power 
which  she  had  sought  so  long.  She  was  yet  only  in  her 
fortieth  year.  The  envoys  of  kings  had  sued  humbly  at 
her  feet,  and  her  litter  and  guard  had  flashed  through  the 
streets  of  Rome  with  an  impression  of  greatness  that  no 
other  woman  then  known  had  ever  possessed.  But  the 
reins  passed  from  her  hands  to  her  brutal  son  and  his 
despicable  courtiers.  From  the  palace  she  passed,  with  a 
few  devoted  followers,  to  the  small  mansion  of  her  grand- 
mother Antonia,  and  the  sycophantic  courtiers  deserted 
her.  Graver  citizens,  watching  the  rapid  degradation  of 
the  Imperial  house,  followed  her  with  sympathy,  but  few 
dared  to  visit  her  in  the  lonely  mansion.  Unfortunately, 
she  quarrelled  with  one  of  these  few,  and  came  near  to 
losing  her  life. 

7 


98  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

Her  old  friend  Julia  Silana,  a  woman  of  great  wealth 
but  very  faded  beauty,  proposed  to  marry  a  handsome 
young  Roman  knight.  Agrippina  imprudently  advised 
him  not  to  marry  a  woman  of  such  advanced  years  and  so 
adventurous  a  record.  Her  words  were  repeated  to  Julia, 
and  friendship  was  exchanged  for  the  most  bitter  animosity. 
Julia  Silana  was  childless,  and  it  is  conjectured  that  Agrip- 
pina hoped  to  inherit  her  wealth  if  she  died  unmarried. 
Whether  she  believed  this  or  no,  Julia  conceived  a  deep 
hatred,  and  induced  two  of  her  clients  to  accuse  Agrippina 
of  high  treason.  Nero  seems  to  have  been  in  an  uncertain 
mood,  and  an  ingenious  plot  was  devised  to  win  him. 

One  night  when  he  lay,  flushed  with  wine,  after  the 
banquet,  his  favourite  comedian  Paris  came  to  amuse  him. 
Nero  noticed  that  the  man  was  agitated  and  less  merry 
than  usual,  and  asked  the  reason.  Paris,  who  was  acting 
in  the  service  of  the  plotters,  confessed  with  artistic  tears 
that  there  was  a  conspiracy  afoot  to  dethrone  his  noble 
master ;  that  Agrippina  was  about  to  marry  Rubellius 
Plautus,  a  Senator  of  Imperial  descent,  and  seize  the  throne. 
The  inebriated  Emperor  at  once  demanded  their  heads,  but 
Seneca  and  Burrus  restrained  him,  and  compelled  him  to 
hear  Agrippina  on  the  morrow.  In  her  speech,  which 
Tacitus  has  preserved,  she  refuted  and  routed  her  assailants 
with  such  vigour  that  she  was,  apparently,  reconciled  to 
Nero  and  restored  to  some  authority.  Julia  Silana  was 
banished,  Domitia's  chamberlain  (who  had  instructed  the 
actor)  was  executed,  and  Agrippina's  own  followers  were 
rewarded. 

The  two  years  that  followed  this  reconciliation  are 
obscure,  and  we  can  only  dimly  conjecture  that  Agrippina 
had  some  peace  and  prestige,  but  no  longer  shared  the 
Imperial  rule.  Then,  in  the  year  58,  another  and  unexpected 
woman  came  into  the  field,  and  Agrippina  sank  rapidly 
toward  an  abyss  of  tragedy. 

In  an  earlier  chapter  we  saw  that  Messalina  drove  to 
death  a  very  wealthy  and  beautiful  Roman  lady  named 
Poppaea  Sabina.     It  was  her  daughter,  who  had  inherited 


THE  MOTHER  OF  NERO  99 

her  wealth  and  her  beauty,  that  now  attracted  the  amorous 
regard  of  the  Emperor.  She  had  married  one  of  Nero's 
favourite  companions,  who  babbled  in  his  cups  of  her 
dazzling  beauty,  and  inflamed  the  desire  of  Nero.  In  the 
next  chapter  we  shall  read  of  her  natural  charms,  of  the 
singular  art  with  which  she  cultivated  them  and  the  coquetry 
with  which  she  employed  them,  and  of  the  superb  and 
fabulous  splendour  of  her  equipage.  It  is  enough  to  say 
here  that  Nero  visited  her,  learned  that  she  was  willing  to 
be  an  Empress,  but  not  the  mistress  of  an  Emperor,  and 
resolved  to  make  any  sacrifice  to  secure  so  unique  a  treasure. 
The  first  victim  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  new  passion  was 
Octavia,  and  the  delicate  and  timid  girl  would  make  little 
resistance.  But  Agrippina  had  espoused  her  cause  with 
a  spirit  that  redeems  much  of  her  irregular  conduct,  and 
she  now  saw  that  her  own  interest,  as  well  as  that  of 
Octavia,  required  that  she  should  oppose  Poppaea  with  all 
her  strength.  In  that  resolution  she  wrote  her  death- 
sentence,  not  ignobly. 

Even  if  we  refuse  to  admit  some  of  the  incredible 
statements  that  are  made  regarding  it  in  the  chronicles, 
it  is  clear  that  an  extraordinary  struggle  now  took  place 
about  the  person  of  the  Emperor.  The  antagonists  were 
Poppaea  and  Agrippina.  Octavia  was  one  of  those  frail, 
lily-like  Roman  women  who  never  struggled  ;  Poppaea's 
husband  was  easily  set  aside.  Poppaea  affected  coyness, 
and  refused  to  have  any  other  than  conjugal  relations 
with  Nero,  while  she  employed  all  her  charms  to  inflame 
him.  Agrippina  fought  so  desperately  that  Roman  gossip, 
and  Roman  historians,  ascribed  the  most  infamous  devices 
to  her.  In  spite  of  his  expression  of  doubt,  it  is  plain 
that  Tacitus  shares  the  popular  belief,  which  he  relates, 
that  Agrippina  used  to  sit  with  her  son  in  loose  robes 
when  he  was  heated  with  wine,  and  to  ride  in  the  same 
litter  with  him.  Against  this  charge,  however,  Dio  defends 
her  (Ixi,  11).  He  says  that  one  of  Nero's  courtesans 
resembled  his  mother,  and  that  a  light  remark  of  his  on 
that  circumstance  gave  birth  to  the  libel.     Poppaea  would 


loo  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

not  be  indisposed  to  encourage  the  story.  On  the  other 
hand,  Mr.  Baring-Gould  attempts  an  untenable  defence 
when  he  speaks  of  Agrippina  as  "  the  poor  old  lady." 
She  was  only  in  her  forty-second  year,  and  was  a  woman 
of  great  beauty  and  little  scruple. 

Whatever  arts  Agrippina  employed  in  the  struggle, 
she  rapidly  lost  ground  before  so  formidable  a  rival,  and 
Poppaea  incited  Nero  against  her.  He  harassed  her  with 
lawsuits  when  she  was  in  Rome,  and  sent  men  to  insult 
her  when  she  withdrew  to  her  villa  in  the  country.  Before 
long  Agrippina  became  sensible  that  her  struggle  for  power 
had  passed  into  the  appalling  experience  of  a  struggle  for 
life  against  her  own  son.  Nero  made  several  attempts  to 
poison  her,  but  she  was  on  her  guard  against  this  familiar 
weapon.  It  is  said  that  she  had  an  antidote  compounded 
of  walnuts,  figs,  rue,  and  salt.  Then  a  freedman  in  Nero's 
suite  suggested  a  more  insidious  scheme.  Her  country 
house  was  in  repair,  and  Anicetus  directed  the  workmen 
to  saw  through  the  heavy  timber  over  her  bed,  so  that 
the  room  would  collapse  when  she  went  to  rest.  Agrippina 
was  warned,  however,  and  the  plot  was  defeated. 

By  the  early  spring  of  the  year  59  Nero  had  fallen  into 
a  mood  of  the  most  sombre  and  bitter  dejection.  Poppaea 
continued  to  taunt  him  with  his  dependence  on  his  mother, 
and  to  display  her  maddening  charms  just  beyond  the 
range  of  his  eager  arms.  The  better  citizens  of  Rome, 
on  the  other  hand,  now  perceived  his  horrible  design, 
and  watched  the  struggle  with  anxiety.  As  he  sat  at 
the  theatre  one  day  in  this  mood,  his  attention  was  caught 
by  one  of  the  elaborate  mechanical  spectacles  which  were 
often  put  on  the  stage  at  the  time.  A  ship  sailed  into 
view  of  the  spectators,  fell  into  pieces,  and  disgorged  a 
number  of  wild  beasts  upon  the  stage.  Nero  asked 
Anicetus,  who  was  a  skilful  mechanic,  whether  he  could 
build  a  ship  that  would  thus  fall  to  pieces  on  the  water 
at  a  given  moment.  The  man  promised  to  do  so,  and  Nero 
went  down  to  the  coast  in  more  cheerful  temper. 

It   was   the   month   of  March,  when  wealth}'  Romans 


THE  MOTHER   OF   NERO  loi 

were  wont  to  forsake  the  city  for  the  marble  villas 
which  shone  in  the  spring  sun  on  the  flowered  hills  about 
the  northern  corner  of  the  Bay  of  Naples.  The  season 
began  with  the  festival  of  Minei*Va  en*  March '19th.  With 
some  surprise  and  suspicion,  A.grippfna,:who  had  gone 
down  to  her  villa,  received  an  affectionate  invitation  to 
join  her  son  at  Baiae  for  the  celebration  ;  and  she  heard 
from  other  quarters  that  he  had  announced  a  desire  to 
be  reconciled  with  her.  She  went  on  board  the  Liburnian 
galley  which  lay  off  the  gardens  of  her  villa  at  Antium, 
and  sailed  to  Baiae,  Nero  met  her  in  the  Imperial  galley, 
kissed  her  affectionately,  and  invited  her  to  a  banquet 
which  his  friend  Otho,  the  husband  of  Poppaea,  would 
give  that  night  in  honour  of  their  reconciliation.  She 
consented,  but  it  is  clear  that  she  wavered  between  her 
consciousness  of  the  utter  unscrupulousness  of  her  son 
and  the  bright  vision  of  a  return  to  happiness  which  he 
held  before  her. 

When  the  hour  came  for  going,  she  was  told  that  her 
galley  had  met  with  an  accident,  but  that  a  superb  gilded 
galley,  with  sails  of  silk  and  a  military  guard  on  board,  had 
been  sent  as  a  love-gift  from  her  son  in  commemoration  of 
their  restored  affection.  She  gazed  with  suspicion  on  the 
beautiful  object,  as  it  lay  mirrored  in  the  waters  of  the  little 
haven,  and  decided  to  go  overland,  on  a  litter,  to  Otho's 
villa.  But  the  amiable  behaviour  of  Nero  at  the  banquet 
dispelled  the  last  shade  of  her  suspicion.  In  the  joy  which 
his  caresses  and  his  well-feigned  affection  gave  her,  she 
did  not  notice  the  passing  of  the  hours  until  midnight, 
when  she  rose  to  go.  The  beautiful  ship  with  the  gilded 
flanks  and  the  silken  sails  awaited  her  once  more,  and  this 
time  she  embarked  on  it.  Nero  kissed  her  eyes  and  her 
hands,  put  his  arms  about  her  and  pressed  her  to  his 
bosom,  held  her  while  he  gave  a  last  long  look  into  her 
eyes,  and  then — abandoned  her  to  the  murderer  Anicetus. 

The  galley  shot  out  over  the  smooth  scented  waters 
under  a  canopy  of  brilliant  stars.  Agrippina  sat  in  her 
cabin,  in  the  soft  spring  air,  and  talked  about  the  happy 


I02  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

future  with  her  one  male  attendant,  Crepereius  Gallus,  and 
her  one  maid,  Acerronia  Pollia.  And  suddenly,  as  they 
reached  the  deep  water,, there  was  an  ugly  crack,  and  the 
roof  of  the -cabin  feii  on  thiem.  Gallus  was  killed  outright, 
but  the  tyffx  vrpimen  were  saved,  as  the  stout  walls  failed  to 
collapse,  and  there  was -some  misunderstanding  among  the 
crew  in  the  dark.  The  maid  rushed  to  the  deck  calling  for 
aid  for  the  Empress — others  say  that  she  represented  her- 
self as  the  Empress — and  was  slain.  Agrippina  listened 
with  terror  to  the  crash  of  timber  and  the  rush  of  armed 
men,  and  realized  the  treachery  of  her  son.  Still  she  did 
not  court  death.  She  dropped  quietly  over  the  side,  and 
swam  toward  the  distant  shore.  Her  strength  gradually 
failed,  and  she  was  about  to  abandon  the  awful  struggle, 
when  some  men  who  were  fishing  by  night  picked  her  up 
and  took  her  ashore. 

Wounded  by  the  falling  timbers,  exhausted  by  the 
struggle,  stricken  to  the  heart  by  the  brutality  of  her  son, 
she  nevertheless  rallied  at  once,  and  devised  a  fresh  plan. 
She  calmly  sent  a  message  to  Nero  that,  by  the  favour  of 
the  gods,  she  had  survived  the  wreck  of  the  galley  which 
he  had  given  her,  but  requested  that  he  would  not  come  to 
visit  her  until  her  wound  was  healed.  Without  a  word  to 
her  attendants  about  the  horrible  plot,  she  ordered  the 
remedies  for  her  condition,  and  trusted  that  Nero  would 
repent.  Through  the  remaining  hours  of  the  night  she  lay 
on  her  couch,  with  one  maid  in  attendance,  her  room  feebly 
lit  by  a  single  light.  The  whole  country  without  was  alive 
with  men.  The  shore  was  lit  up  with  their  torches,  and 
they  gathered  about  the  house  to  express  their  joy  that 
Agrippina  had  escaped  shipwreck  on  the  very  night  of  so 
auspicious  a  reconciliation.  As  the  first  light  of  dawn 
broke  on  the  encircling  hills,  Anicetus  and  his  men  entered 
the  house  with  Nero's  reply.  She  read  something  of  its 
tenor  in  their  faces,  and  said  to  their  leader :  "  Hast  thou 
come  to  visit  me  ?  Then  tell  my  son  that  I  have  recovered. 
Hast  thou  come  to  slay  me  ?  Then  I  say  it  is  not  my  son 
who  sent  thee."    A  sailor  struck  her  over  the  head  with  a 


THE   MOTHER   OF  NERO  103 

stick,  and  she  saw  that  the  end  had  come.  Tearing  aside 
her  loose  robe,  and  baring  her  white  body  to  the  men,  she 
said  sadly :  "  Strike  here,  Anicetus,  for  it  was  here  that 
Nero  was  born."    She  fell  dead  under  a  shower  of  blows. 

Nero  had  heard  that  his  mother  had  escaped.  Dreading 
that  she  might  stir  into  flame  the  resentment  of  Rome,  he 
called  a  council  of  his  friends.  Seneca  is  said  to  have  been 
silent,  Burrus  indignant.  At  that  moment  Agrippina's 
chamberlain  entered  with  her  message.  In  a  flash  of 
cunning  Anicetus  threw  a  sword  at  his  feet,  and  pretended 
that  he  had  been  sent  by  Agrippina  to  kill  Nero.  The 
Emperor  accepted  the  sordid  pretext,  and,  as  Burrus 
bluntly  refused  to  send  his  soldiers  to  execute  her,  Anicetus 
gladly  charged  himself  with  the  task.  He  was  appointed 
admiral  of  one  of  the  fleets  for  his  services.  It  is  even 
recorded,  though  details  like  this  must  always  be  regarded 
with  reserve,  that  when  the  servants  bore  their  mistress's 
body  to  the  garden,  and  stripped  it  for  the  pile,  Nero  stood 
by  and  said,  jeeringly :  "  I  had  no  idea  she  was  so  hand- 
some." 

A  report  was  issued,  and  a  formal  announcement  made 
to  the  Senate,  that  Agrippina  had  attempted  the  Emperor's 
life,  and  that,  when  Nero  sent  men  to  arrest  her,  she  took 
her  own  life.  And  the  Senate  licked  the  feet  of  Nero, 
decreed  games  and  festivals  in  gratitude  for  his  preserva- 
tion, and  led  the  enthusiasm  of  the  people.  So  well  known 
was  the  murder  that  an  actor  referred  mockingly  to  it  in 
the  theatre.  "  Farewell,  my  father,"  he  said,  eating  a  mush- 
room—'*  Farewell,  mother,"  he  added,  imitating  the  action 
of  a  swimmer.  The  common  folk  repeated  numbers  of 
these  grim  jokes.  But  they  enjoyed  the  games  of  thanks- 
giving, and  Senators  and  nobles  took  part  in  them  on  the 
stage  and  in  the  arena,  and  Rome  sank  swiftly  into  the 
terrible  degradation  of  Nero's  later  reign,  which  will 
occupy  us  in  the  next  chapter. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  a  summary  estimate  of 
Agrippina's  character.  In  the  view  of  Stahr  and  Baring- 
Gould  and  a  few  other  recent  writers,  she  was  "  aueenly. 


I04  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

honourable,  and  pure,"  and  had  only  the  doubtful  vices 
of  ambition  and  pride.  For  Tacitus  and  the  other  Latin 
writers  she  was  capable  of  any  enormity,  and  guilty  of 
most.  It  will  be  seen  that  I  hold  an  intermediate  view. 
She  was  a  woman  of  great  distinction,  ability,  and  strength. 
Had  she  lived  in  an  age  when  virtue  was  not  inexpedient, 
she  would  have  been  an  illustrious  and  virtuous  queen. 
But  she  had  to  struggle  to  obtain  and  retain  power  in  an 
age  when  a  new  and  more  intellectual  moral  standard  was 
replacing  an  older  and  more  instinctive  standard,  and, 
where  it  seemed  profitable,  she  availed  herself  of  the  moral 
scepticism  which  such  a  change  always  engenders.  She 
was  queenly,  but  she  was  not  entirely  honourable,  and  she 
was  almost  certainly  not  pure.  But  she  served  Rome  well, 
and  left  it  happy  and  prosperous ;  and  her  unselfish  passion 
for  the  advancement  of  her  son,  her  chivalrous  and  fatal 
defence  of  his  injured  wife,  and  the  bravery  with  which 
she  met  his  unspeakable  brutality,  do  much  to  outweigh 
her  evil  deeds  in  the  scale  of  Osiris. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  WIVES   OF   NERO 

NERO  was  no  longer  "the  young  Apollo"  of  his  boy- 
hood. Unbridled  dissipation  and  precocious  crime 
had  made  their  impress  on  body  no  less  than  on 
mind.  He  was  a  little  above  the  average  height,  but  his 
prematurely  swollen  paunch  was  poorly  balanced  on  his 
slender  and  ungraceful  limbs,  and  his  skin  was  blotched 
and  repellent.  The  dull  grey  eyes  betrayed  his  unceasing 
indulgence,  and  the  yellow  hair,  dressed  in  stages  of  short 
curls,  framed  a  face  that  was  certainly  no  longer  handsome. 
His  mind  was  in  unmistakable  disorder.  Our  kindly  age 
would  invoke  this  mental  trouble  in  extenuation  of  the 
brutal  crimes  he  had  committed  and  the  stupendous  folly 
he  is  about  to  perpetrate.  Were  this  a  biography  of  the 
Emperors,  we  might  boldly  essay  to  prove  rather  that  the 
insanity  followed  the  matricide,  but  that  does  not  concern 
us.     He  was,  as  yet,  only  in  his  twenty-second  year. 

To  this  precocious  monstrosity  of  vice  and  crime  was 
mated  one  of  the  gentlest  young  matrons  of  the  Caesarean 
house,  Octavia,  the  daughter  of  Claudius  and  Messalina. 
Married  at  the  very  early  age  of  thirteen  to  Nero,  her 
timid  girlish  nature  was  paralyzed  by  the  coarse  habits  of 
her  husband,  and  she  merely  hovers  about  the  stage,  like  a 
dimly  perceptible  shadow,  during  the  earlier  part  of  Nero's 
reign.  It  must  have  been  shortly  after  their  marriage  that 
Nero  disdained  her  for  the  beautiful  Greek  slave,  Acte,  to 
whom  he  was  more  constant  than  to  any  other  living  thing, 
and  who,  in  return,  paid  the  last  tribute  to  his  despised 

»°5 


ro6  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

remains.  At  first  one  of  Nero's  associates  screened  the  en- 
tanglement, but,  as  we  saw,  it  became  known  in  the  palace, 
and  Agrippina  made  a  fruitless  effort  to  press  the  rights 
of  his  girl-wife.  The  injustice  was,  however,  one  that 
Roman  ladies  were  not  unaccustomed  to  bear.  Nero  soon 
fell  into  more  disreputable  ways.  Octavia  would  see  him 
leave  the  palace  after  supper  with  his  wild  companions, 
and  needed  little  eflfort  of  imagination  to  follow  his  course 
when  he  returned,  in  the  early  morning,  with  torn  gar- 
ments and  flushed,  if  not  bruised,  features  and,  occasionally, 
the  painted  signs  that  he  had  wrenched  from  shop-doors, 
or  the  cups  he  had  stolen  in  a  raid  upon  some  low  tavern. 

He  had  gathered  about  him  a  band  of  older  youths,  who 
encouraged  him  in  the  licentious  use  of  his  power,  and 
endeared  themselves  to  him  by  the  fertility  of  their  imagina- 
tions. Chief  among  them  was  Salvius  Otho,  a  young  noble 
of  Etruscan  descent,  five  years  older  than  Nero — the 
Emperor  Otho  of  a  later  date.  He  had  entered  the  palace 
in  virtue  of  an  amorous  relation  with  one  of  Agrippina's 
ladies,  and  his  wide  knowledge  of  adolescent  amusements 
won  him  the  regard  of  Nero,  whom  he  led  into  the  wildest 
adventures.  They  would  wander  at  night  through  the 
streets,  and  revel  in  the  taverns  and  brothels  of  the  popular 
quarters  of  the  city,  the  mysterious  dim-lit  valleys  on 
which  patrician  maidens  looked  down  from  the  mansions 
on  the  hills.  In  those  centres  of  nightly  disorder  Nero 
and  his  companions  were  the  most  daring  Mohocks,  if  we 
may  use  a  phrase  that  belongs  to  later  history.  They 
violated  women  and  boys,  and  played  the  most  brutal 
pranks  upon  unarmed  folk.  One  night  Nero  was  severely 
thrashed  by  a  Senator,  whose  wife  he  had  insulted.  The 
man  learned  afterwards  that  it  was  the  Emperor  whom  he 
had  beaten,  and  went  to  the  palace  to  apologize.  Nero 
forced  him  to  atone  with  his  life  for  the  injury  he  had  done 
to  the  Imperial  dignity.  He  withdrew  the  guards  from  the 
Circus,  in  order  that  he  might  enjoy  the  fights  of  the  rival 
factions,  and  from  the  Milvian  Bridge,  at  night,  so  as  to 
g;ive  complete  liberty  to  vice  iq  that  nocturnal  resort. 


THE   WIVES  OF   NERO  107 

The  chaste  and  trembling  Octavia,  who  was  still  only 
in  her  sixteenth  year,  shrank  from  his  brutal  disdain.  It 
was  enough  for  her  to  have  the  title  of  Empress,  he  said 
to  his  mother,  when  she  urged  the  rights  of  Octavia. 
Presently  Nero  declared  that  he  would  divorce  her,  and 
marry  the  handsome  Greek  girl,  but  Seneca  and  Burrus 
succeeded  in  preventing  him.  To  check  his  disorders 
entirely  they  were  quite  powerless,  and  they  seem  to 
have  thought  it  better  to  direct,  than  to  resist,  his 
vices.  Suddenly,  however,  in  the  year  58,  Nero  trans- 
ferred his  passion  to  the  daughter  of  Poppaea  Sabina, 
and  began  the  long,  tragic  struggle  to  secure  her  as  his 
Empress. 

Poppaea,  who  will  be  the  next  figure  in  our  gallery 
of  Roman  Empresses,  and  therefore  may  at  once  be 
introduced,  was  one  of  the  prettiest,  vainest,  and  most 
discussed  ladies  in  Rome.  Her  mother,  with  whom  we 
are  already  acquainted  as  one  of  Messalina's  victims,  had 
been  the  daughter  of  a  very  wealthy  and  illustrious 
provincial  governor,  Poppaeus  Sabinus.  Poppaea's  father, 
Titus  Ollius,  had  been  a  friend  of  Sejanus,  and  had  been 
swept  away  in  the  flood  of  Tiberius's  anger.  She  was, 
therefore,  of  mature  years,  but  she  had  protected  her 
charms  so  industriously  that  she  still  had  the  soft  beauty 
and  the  fresh  complexion  of  a  girl.  She  had  inherited 
also  the  wealth,  the  wit,  and — it  is  said — the  easy  morals 
of  her  mother.  The  pretence  of  modesty  which  she  made, 
by  wearing  a  veil  whenever  she  went  abroad,  was  redeemed 
by  the  splendour  of  her  establishment  and  the  elaborate 
culture  of  her  fair  skin  and  pretty  face.  The  mules  which 
drew  the  litter  of  the  veiled  lady  were  shod  with  gold, 
and  the  traces  of  their  harness  were  woven  from  gold 
thread.  When  she  moved  to  her  country  house,  or  to 
Baiae,  five  hundred  she-asses  ran  in  the  train  of  her 
litter  and  cars,  to  provide  the  milk  for  her  daily  bath.  If 
we  may  trust  the  busts  to  which  her  name  is  attached, 
she  had  a  childish  grace  and  delicacy  of  feature,  instead 
of  the  tense  face  of  the  adventuress ;  and  we  know  tha,t 


io8  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

her  amber-coloured  hair  was  so  much  admired  that  it  set, 
or  revived,  a  fashion  in  amber. 

She  had  married  a  knight,  Rufus  Crispinus,  by  whom 
she  had  had  a  son.  This  marriage  was  ended  by  divorce, 
and  she  became  the  wife  of  Nero's  favourite,  Salvius  Otho. 
It  is  suggested,  and  not  difficult  to  believe,  that  she  had 
married  Otho  on  account  of  his  intimacy  with  the  Emperor. 
He  was  by  no  means  handsome,  though  he  covered  his 
baldness  with  a  wig,  dressed  sumptuously,  and  had  wealth, 
wit,  and  taste  for  art.  From  him  Nero  heard,  over  their 
cups,  the  piquant  story  of  Poppaea's  beauty  and  luxury, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  Imperial  messengers  were  sent 
to  her  mansion.  They  were  not  admitted,  and  even  Nero, 
when  he  sought  entrance,  was  coyly  reminded  that  Poppaea 
was  married,  and  was  devoted  to  her  husband.  After  a 
stormy  siege  she  gracefully  capitulated  so  far  as  to  receive 
innocent  visits  from  Nero,  and  inflame  him  to  madness 
with  the  display  of  her  cultivated  beauty.  He  spoke 
bitterly  of  his  mother  as  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  their 
marriage.  Poppaea  twitted  him  with  his  dependence  on 
her,  and  we  have  seen  the  outcome. 

When  Agrippina  had  been  removed,  Nero  proposed 
at  once  to  divorce  Octavia  and  wed  Poppaea.  The  silence 
of  Seneca  at  all  these  critical  points  in  the  degradation 
of  Nero  is  painful  to  every  admirer  of  the  distinguished 
moralist.  It  was  the  less  courtly  and  less  virtuous  Burrus 
who  defended  the  young  Empress.  If  Nero  abandoned 
Octavia,  he  brusquely  said,  he  must  also  give  up  her 
dowry— the  throne — and  Burrus  was  too  generally  respected 
to  be  flouted.  Octavia  therefore  remained  in  her  lonely 
chamber  at  the  palace,  a  helpless  witness  of  the  vices  of 
her  husband. 

For  a  month  or  two  after  the  murder  of  Agrippina  he 
behaved  as  one  stricken  with  a  wild  and  haunting  remorse. 
He  went  feverishly  from  place  to  place,  and  gathered  about 
him  a  band  of  magicians  and  charlatans.  He  feared  to  go 
to  Rome  until  he  was  assured  that  Rome  was  rejoicing 
at  his  escape  from  his  mother's  plot.     Few  pages  in  the 


THE   WIVES  OF  NERO  109 

story  of  that  degenerate  city  are  sadder  than  that  which 
records  the  reception,  in  the  month  of  May,  of  the  Imperial 
matricide.  The  Senators  and  their  families,  dressed  in  their 
gayest  robes,  hurried  out  along  the  Appian  Way  to  meet 
him,  and  his  route  was  lined  deep  with  cheering  crowds. 
He  rewarded  them  royally.  Five  or  six  theatres  opened 
their  doors,  day  after  day,  to  the  degraded  citizens.  New 
things — things  that  had  never  before  been  seen  in  the 
whole  histor}'  of  the  city — were  provided  for  their  enter- 
tainment. Men  and  women  of  the  highest  rank  played 
the  most  lascivious  parts  of  the  mimes  on  the  public 
stage,  and  drove  their  chariots  in  the  public  circus.  Nero 
was  a  champion  of  the  "  green "  faction,  and  pitted  his 
royal  skill  daily  in  the  circus  against  the  charioteers  of 
the  other  factions.  He  sang  in  the  theatre,  and  organized 
a  band  of  five  thousand  handsome  youths,  in  splendid 
costumes,  to  lead  the  applause,  and  shower  upon  him  his 
favourite  epithet  of  "Apollo."  He  even  ventured  to  win 
praise  in  the  amphitheatre,  but  the  one  young  lion  which 
he  vanquished  had  been  prudently  gorged  and  stupefied 
before  he  encountered  it.  He  announced  that  his  skill 
might  be  hired  for  private  banquets,  and  nobles  paid  him 
a  million  sesterces  for  his  services.  Apollo,  he  reflected, 
had  no  beard  in  Greek  statuary,  so  he  shaved  his  beard, 
and  the  handful  of  yellow  hair  was  enclosed  in  a  golden 
casket  studded  with  pearls,  and  carried  in  solemn  pro- 
cession to  the  Capitol.  In  the  mighty  rejoicing  over  this 
complete  assimilation  to  Apollo  of  the  tun-bellied,  lanky- 
legged,  half-crazy  youth,  it  is  recorded  that  a  noble  dame 
in  her  eightieth  year  danced  on  the  stage  in  the  theatre. 
The  descendants  of  the  greatest  Roman  families  volun- 
tarily entered  the  base  ranks  of  the  comedian  and  the 
charioteer. 

Mr.  Henderson  is  reluctant  to  admit,  in  his  study  of 
Nero,  that  he  was  insane.  It  would,  no  doubt,  puzzle  the 
most  penetrating  psychologist  to  assign  the  respective 
portions  of  guilt  and  of  irresponsible  disorder  in  his 
conduct ;  but  that  there  was  mental  disorder  it  is  at  once 


no  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

more  natural  and  more  charitable  to  assume.  In  any  case, 
a  year  or  so  of  this  delirious  life  wore  out  his  robust 
frame,  and  a  serious  illness  suspended  for  a  time  the 
disgraceful  performances.  Unfortunately,  when  he  re- 
covered, he  lost  the  one  man  who  had  had  some  power  to 
restrain  him,  and  sufficient  honesty  to  use  it.  Burrus  died 
in  the  year  62,  and  at  the  same  time  the  slender  influence 
of  Seneca  was  destroyed.  This  is  no  place  to  discuss  the 
difficult  and  delicate  problem  of  Seneca's  conduct  in  his 
association  with  Nero.  Enough  to  say  that  he  was  now 
accused  of  conspiracy,  and,  although  he  successfully 
defended  himself,  he  ceased  to  have  any  power  at  the 
palace. 

It  was  now  possible  for  Nero  to  rid  himself  of  the  pale 
young  prude,  who  shrank  in  her  apartments,  and  there  were 
men  enough  to  devise  the  procedure.    Salvius  Otho  had 
already  been  sent  to  a  remote  part  of  the  Empire,  and  his 
place  had  been  taken  by  a  horse-dealer,  named  Tigellinus, 
of  little  culture  and  even  less  character.     With  this  new 
favourite   Poppaea   entered   into   alliance,   and    the   young 
Empress    presently  found    herself   accused,    with    brutal 
levity,  of  adultery  with   Eucer,  an  Alexandrian  slave  and 
musician,   and   of  covering    her  shame   by  the  crime    of 
abortion.     Tigellinus  easily  obtained  witnesses,  but  most 
of  Octavia's  servants  refused,  even  under  torture,  to  belie 
the  virtue  of  their  gentle   mistress.     The   coarseness    of 
Tigellinus  had  carried  him  too  far,  and  public  feeling  was 
strongly  aroused  in  her  favour.     Nero  fell  back  upon  the 
ground  of  her  childlessness,  of  which  he  could  probably 
have  furnished  a  simple  explanation,  and  divorced  her.     In 
deference  to  the  sentiment  of  Rome,  he  at  first  gave  her  the 
house  of  Burrus  and  the  fortune  of  a  noble  whom  he  had 
executed.     A  little  later,  however,  probably  under  pressure 
from   Poppaea,   he   banished   her  to   Campania.      He    had 
married  Poppaea  a  fortnight  after  the  divorce  of  Octavia. 

But  the  flagrant  outrage  quickened  the  better  feeling 
that  Rome  had  not  yet  entirely  lost,  and  Nero  was  forced 
to  recall  her.     To  the  deep  mortification  of  Poppaea,  the 


THE   WIVES   OF   NERO  HI 

crowds  invaded  the  outer  court  of  the  palace,  crying  the 
name  of  Octavia.  They  removed  the  statues  of  the  new 
Empress  from  the  temples  and  public  places,  and  restored 
to  their  positions,  and  crowned  with  flowers,  the  discarded 
statues  of  Octavia.  Poppaea  angrily  pressed  Nero  to  assert 
his  power,  and  the  resourceful  Anicetus,  the  murderer  of 
Agrippina,  was  summoned  to  Rome.  Bolder  even  than 
Tigellinus,  he  swore  that  he  himself  had  had  commerce 
with  Octavia,  and,  after  a  pretence  of  trial,  she  was  banished 
to  Sardinia.  Poppaea  was  not  yet  content,  and  Nero  next 
announced  that  Octavia  had  been  detected  in  an  attempt 
to  corrupt  the  commander  of  the  fleet.  She  was  taken  to 
the  rock-island  of  Pandateria  that  had  already  witnessed 
tragedies. 

The  good  feeling  of  Rome  seems  by  this  time  to  have 
been  exhausted,  and  Octavia  was  lazily  surrendered  to 
the  brutal  band  who  now  surrounded  Nero.  There  is 
a  peculiar  melancholy  in  the  closing  of  that  frail  and 
innocent  career.  Rough  soldiers  seize  the  timid  form, 
carry  her  to  the  bath,  bind  her  limbs,  and  open  her  veins. 
Timid  and  shrinking  to  the  end,  the  young  girl — even  now 
she  is  only  in  her  twentieth  year — starts  back  with  horror 
from  the  great  darkness,  and  piteously  implores  them  to 
spare  her  life.  She  faints,  and  the  flow  of  her  blood  is 
arrested.  The  last  pretence  of  pity  is  tossed  aside,  and  she 
is  stifled  in  the  vapour-bath. 

Poppaea,  Tacitus  says,  sent  for  her  head.  It  is  difficult 
to  decide  whether  the  frequent  repetition  of  this  horrible 
detail  in  the  chronicles  increases  or  lessens  its  credulity. 
But  we  can  have  no  hesitation  in  believing  Tacitus  when 
he  says  that  the  Senate  ordered  services  of  thanksgiving 
in  the  temples  for  this  fresh  preservation  of  the  life  of  the 
Emperor. 

Another  Empress  had  stepped  in  blood  to  the  throne, 
and  was  in  turn  to  stain  it  with  her  blood  after  a  few  years 
of  imperial  folly.  We  have  seen  what  type  of  woman  it 
was  whom  Nero  put  in  the  place  of  Octavia.  Wealthy, 
coquettish,  and  beautiful,  Poppaea  saw  in  life  only  a  sunny 


112  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

path  for  the  pursuit  of  butterflies.  When  she  is  represented 
to  us  as  licentious  we  must  remember  that  no  definite 
scandal  attaches  to  her  name,  and  that  she  is  actually 
described  as  "  pious "  by  no  less  an  authority  than  the 
Jewish  historian  Josephus.  In  fact  this  circumstance,  and 
a  peculiar  feature  of  the  disposal  of  her  body,  which  we 
will  consider,  gave  birth  to  a  speculation  in  early  times 
that  she  had  become  a  Christian.  Serviez  finds  the  story 
of  her  conversion  by  St.  Paul,  and  subsequent  "  return  to 
her  abominations,"  too  piquant  to  admit  of  doubt.  But  the 
conversion  is  even  more  disputable  than  the  abominations. 
It  is  now  much  disputed  among  our  leading  divines 
whether  St.  Paul  ever  visited  Rome,  and  there  is  a 
simpler  explanation  of  the  phrase  used  by  Josephus.  The 
Roman  governor  of  Judaea — the  biblical  Felix,  a  brother  of 
Agrippina's  favourite,  Pallas — had  dealt  harshly  with  the 
Jews,  and  sent  some  of  their  priests  in  chains  to  Rome. 
Josephus  and  others  went  to  intercede  for  them,  and  luckily 
met  a  Jewish  comedian  who  was  in  the  favour  of  Poppaea 
and  Nero.  The  historian  was  received  with  distinction  at 
the  palace,  and  was  so  successful  in  his  suit  that  he  might 
well  ascribe  piety  to  Poppaea.  We  may  agree  that  the 
incident  probably  argues  some  culture  on  her  part.  But 
we  shall  discover  her  later  in  conduct  that  makes  it  un- 
desirable to  count  her  as  a  disciple  of  St.  Paul. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  Poppaea  presented  Nero  with 
a  daughter,  and  a  few  weeks  of  wild  rejoicing  restored  her 
to  general  favour,  and  obliterated  the  memory  of  Octavia, 
The  title  of  "Augusta"  was,  in  an  excess  of  flattery, 
bestowed  upon  both  the  mother  and  the  infant.  Senators 
raced  each  other  to  the  Imperial  villa  at  Antium,  to  express 
their  joy  at  this  substantial  promise  of  a  continuance  of 
the  Caesarean  house  which  had  dragged  them  in  the  mire. 
The  whole  of  Italy  was  lit  up  with  rejoicing.  Poppaea  felt 
that  her  position  was  at  last  secure.  And  then,  by  one 
of  those  dread  changes  which  were  almost  as  common  in 
the  life  of  Rome  as  in  the  tragedies  of  Greece,  and  made 
men  assume  that  there  was  a  stem  and  might}'  fate  behind 


OCTAVIA 

PORPHYRY  BUST  IN  THB  LOUVRB 


THE  WIVES  OF  NERO  113 

their  puny  and  indulgent  gods,  the  storm  broke  over  Italy 
once  more.  The  child  withered  and  died,  and  Nero's  mind 
fell  once  more  into  dark  disorder.  He  glanced  round  with 
insane  suspicion  for  possible  aspirants  to  the  throne,  and 
Poppaea's  remaining  son  was  the  first  victim.  One  day 
he  saw  her  boy  (by  her  former  husband)  playing  at  being 
emperor  in  his  games  with  the  other  children.  In  a  few 
days  Poppaea  heard  that  the  boy  had  lost  his  life  while 
fishing.  Many  another  execution  was  ordered  with  the 
same  levity. 

As  before,  these  terrible  deeds  were  mingled  with  the 
most   splendid   and    the    most    licentious    entertainments. 
Noble  dames  of  the  highest  rank  wrestled  and  fought  in 
the  amphitheatre  before   the   frivolous   crowds ;   the   city 
abounded  in  schools  where  the  nobility  learned  to  ape  the 
Emperor's  folly,  and  contribute  to  the  gaiety  of  Rome  with 
the  flute,  the  zither,  or  the  dance.     Nero  conceived  a  new 
idea,  and  pursued   it  with   zeal.      He  would   contest   the 
crown  with  the  artists  of  Greece.     Poppaea  saw  him  train- 
ing in  the  palace,  lying  for  hours  with  heavy  plates  of  lead 
on  his  chest,  restricting  himself  to  a  diet  of  leeks  and  oil. 
She  saw  him  exhibit  his  skill  in  the  theatre,  lifting  up  his 
blotched  and  swollen  body,  in  extraordinary  contortions, 
on  his  thin  legs,  as  he  strained  after  the  high  notes.     Woe 
to  the  man  who  openly  laughed,  or   who  excelled   him ! 
One  of  his  masters  was  put  to  death  because  Nero  per- 
ceived  that   he   could   not  equal   the   man.      At    last    his 
training  was  complete,  and  Rome  sighed  with  relief  as  the 
thousand  carts,  drawn  by  silver-shod  mules,  and  the  five 
thousand  youths  of  the  Augustan  band,  set  out   for  the 
coast.     They  gratified  Naples  with  a  show  as  they  passed 
through.     For  several  days  Nero  kept  the  amazed  citizens 
in  the  theatre,  and  took  his  meals  in  the  orchestra,  so  as 
to  lose  no  time.     Then  came  the  inevitable  epilepsy;  and 
it  was  announced  that  Nero,   perceiving  the  grief  of  his 
subjects  at  the  prospect  of  his  departure,  had  postponed 
the  Grecian  tour. 

On  his  return  to  comparative  health,  and  to  Rome,  he 
8 


114  'I'HE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

once  more  kept  the  citizens  agog  with  alternate  bursts  of 
frantic  dissipation  and  sanguinary  melancholy.     From  the 
death  of  her  child  until  her  own  violent  end,  two  years 
later,  Poppaea  appears  very  little  in  the  chronicles;   but, 
as  we  shall  see  that,  willing  or  unwilling,  she  supported 
her  husband  in  his  bloody  crimes,  we   may  assume   that 
she  joined  him  in  his  less  criminal  orgies.     One  instance 
will  suffice.     He  ordered  that  a  banquet  should  be  given 
on  a  raft,  on  the  large  sheet  of  water  known  as   Lake 
Agrippa.    When  the  citizens  crowded  to  the  shore  on  the 
appointed   evening,  they  found   the  great   raft   towed  by 
vessels  plated  with   ivory  and  gold,   manned  by  youths 
who  had  won   distinction  in  infamy.     Round  the  shore 
taverns,    brothels,  and  dining-rooms    had    been    erected. 
And  when  the  night  fell,  and  the  beautiful  scene  was  lit 
by  the  light  of  innumerable  torches,  the  public  found  that 
women  of  the  highest  rank  were  no  less  accessible  to  them 
than  prostitutes  in  the  houses  by  the  lake,  and  the  slave 
was  at  liberty  to  embrace  his  mistress  under  the  eye  of 
her  husband.      Nero  even  outdistanced   Caligula   in    the 
Imperial  teaching  of  vice.     In  the  garb  of  a  bride,  he  went 
through  the  religious  ceremony  of  marriage  with  a  man  of 
base  character,  named  Pythagoras.     He  had  nude  children 
fastened  to  stakes,  and  rushed   upon   them   fittingly  clad 
in  the  skin  of  a  wild  beast.     And  round  the  frontiers  of 
that  vast  Empire,  which  the  strength  and  sobriety  of  his 
ancestors  had  created,  the  weary  soldiers   watched    the 
barbarians  who  prepared  to  invade  it. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  the  great  fire  occurred 
which  turned  the  laughter  of  Nero's  subjects  into  resent- 
ment. For  six  days  and  seven  nights  the  flames  ate  their 
way  through  the  blocks  of  tall  tenements,  divided  only 
by  narrow  streets,  in  the  parching  heat  of  July.  Nero  was 
in  the  provinces  at  the  time,  and  from  the  conflicting 
accounts  it  is  impossible  to  pass  an  opinion  on  the  rumour 
that  he  had  ordered  the  burning  of  Rome.  Dio  gives  us 
the  familiar  picture  of  Nero  twanging  his  zither,  and 
chanting  the  "  Fall  of  Troy  "  from  the  summit  of  a  high 


THE  WIVES  OF  NERO  115 

tower  on  the  hill.  Others  declare,  however,  that  he  at 
once  ordered  the  most  expedient  methods  for  checking  the 
conflagration.  But  it  was  angrily  whispered  among  the 
camps  of  the  homeless  that  men  had  been  seen  throwing 
torches  upon  their  houses,  and  that  they  were  acting  under 
orders  from  the  palace.  Nor  were  the  citizens  appeased 
when  he  threw  the  blame  on  the  obscure  and  unpopular 
devotees  who  went  by  the  name  of  Christians,  and  afforded 
them  the  brutal  spectacle  of  driving  round  the  circus  to 
the  light  of  burning  men  and  women,  whose  living  bodies 
had  been  wrapped  in  tow  and  soaked  in  wax  and  tar.  Few 
believed  in  their  guilt.  Even  Seneca  at  length  broke  his 
casuistic  or  diplomatic  reserve,  and  retired  in  disgust  from 
Rome.  Nero  went  down  in  great  dejection  to  Baiae, 
leaving  orders  that,  in  the  restoration  of  the  city,  a  new 
palace  should  be  built  for  him  that  should  transcend 
anything  within  the  memory  of  Rome  or  of  history. 

This  "golden  house,"  which  Nero  raised  round  the 
more  modest  palaces  of  his  predecessors,  gave  a  fresh 
grievance  to  discontent.  The  great  and  unselfish  Octavian 
had  been  satisfied  with  a  small  patrician  mansion ;  Tiberius 
had  built  a  palace ;  Caligula  had  enlarged  it ;  Nero  flung 
out  its  wings  over  a  vast  space.  It  seemed  that  Emperors 
squandered  the  money  of  the  State  in  proportion  to  their 
uselessness.  The  colossal  edifice  and  its  wonderful  park 
stretched  from  the  Palatine  to  the  Esquiline,  across  the 
intervening  valley,  and  was  surrounded  by  a  triple  colon- 
nade in  marble.  Citizens  huddled  in  the  crowded  blocks 
of  the  Subura  and  the  Velabrum,  while  Nero  created  a 
miniature  world  within  his  marble  girdle.  There  was  a 
great  lake,  filled  with  salt  water  from  Ostia,  with  a  small 
town  on  its  shore  ;  there  were  vineyards,  cornfields,  groves 
in  which  wild  beasts  ran  loose,  fountains,  and  gardens. 
The  palace  itself  was  of  such  proportions  that  a  statue 
of  Nero  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  high  could  be 
conveniently  lodged  in  its  porch.  Some  of  the  rooms  were 
plated  with  gold  and  adorned  with  precious  stones.  The 
supper-room  had  a  ceiling  of  ivory,  with  openings  through 


Ii6  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

which  flowers  and  costly  perfumes  might  be  shed  upon 
the  guests.  The  Egyptian  roses  whose  beauty  withered 
in  one  banquet  in  this  chamber  had  a  value  of  ;^35,ooo 
in  our  coinage. 

There  now  dawned  on  Rome  some  consciousness  of  the 
price  that  the  Empire  was  paying  for  the  stupendous  folly 
it  had  so  long  applauded.  While  the  treasury  was  being 
exhausted  in  entertainments  that  all  could  enjoy,  the 
murmuring  was  confined  to  the  sober  few.  From  the 
moment  when  this  colossal  symbol  of  Nero's  selfishness 
towered  above  the  city,  the  murmurs  became  audible  and 
were  multiplied.  Nero,  alarmed  at  the  sullen  looks  and 
the  vague  reports  of  plots,  went  down  angrily  to  the  coast. 
Then  a  slave  brought  a  definite  accusation  of  conspiracy 
against  his  master,  and  the  stream  of  blood  began  to  flow. 

It  is  an  unhappy  fact,  and  one  that  confirms  the  darker 
view  of  Poppaea's  character,  that  almost  the  only  detail 
related  of  her  in  the  chronicles,  after  the  death  of  her 
child,  is  that  she  was  one  of  the  council  of  three  who 
directed  this  horrible  series  of  executions.  Nero  would 
not  trust  the  ordinary  procedure  of  Roman  justice.  With 
Poppaea  and  Tigellinus  as  associate-judges,  he  himself 
examined,  or  endorsed,  every  charge  that  cupidity  or 
malignity  brought  to  the  palace.  Rome  was  reddened 
for  weeks  with  torture,  murder,  and  suicide.  Students  of 
the  decay  of  Rome  have,  perhaps,  not  sufficiently  appre- 
ciated the  effect  of  this  periodic  eff*usion  of  the  best  blood 
in  the  city.  In  the  earlier  wars,  both  civil  and  foreign, 
the  good  and  the  base  alike  had  fallen.  In  these  inquisitions 
for  conspiracy,  which  fill  Rome  with  mourning  time  after 
time  from  the  death  of  Octavian  to  the  accession  of  Trajan, 
it  is  chiefly  the  men  and  women  of  honour  who  suff'er. 
They  constitute  a  natural  selection  of  the  cowardly  and 
the  sycophantic. 

The  city  "teemed  with  funerals,"  in  the  terse  phrase 
of  Tacitus,  and  the  gatherings  of  its  citizens  were  black 
with  mourning.  Large  numbers  of  officers  and  patricians 
were  executed  or  driven  to  suicide,  and  their  children  were 


THE   WIVES  OF  NERO  117 

scourged  or  banished  to  the  provinces.  Seneca  paid  the 
penalty  of  his  tardy  outspokenness,  and  his  admirable  end 
sustains  our  trust  that  his  character  may,  in  spite  of  our 
unconquerable  hesitations,  have  been  not  inconsistent  with 
his  high  creed.  He  and  his  wife,  who  nobly  asked  per- 
mission to  quit  the  world  with  him,  had  their  veins  opened, 
and  Seneca  passed  into  the  silence  with  quiet  dignity ; 
his  wife  was,  to  her  regret,  recalled  to  life  by  the  soldiers. 

Poppaea  did  not  live  to  share  the  punishment  which 
these  crimes  brought  upon  Nero.  Her  end  came  more 
swiftly  and  in  more  terrible  form.  The  carnage  had  been 
interrupted  by  a  fresh  outburst  of  rejoicing.  A  man 
declared  to  Nero  that  he  knew  where  the  fabulous  treasures 
of  the  Carthaginian  queen  Dido,  which  Vergil  had  so 
recently  sung  in  the  "  i£neid,"  were  buried.  A  fleet  was 
sent  to  Africa  to  recover  them,  and  from  his  sombre 
brooding  Nero  passed  into  a  new  fit  of  prodigal  enter- 
taining. He  emptied  the  last  depths  of  his  treasury  in 
spectacles  and  donations.  When  the  fleet  returned  at 
length  without  a  single  cup  or  coin,  his  anger  stormed 
with  ungovernable  fury,  and  one  day,  when  Poppaea  ex- 
postulated with  him,  he  kicked  her  in  the  abdomen.  The 
outrage  proved  fatal,  as  she  was  pregnant,  and  Nero's 
light  mind  turned  from  rage  to  the  most  extravagant 
lamentation.  Her  body  was  not  burned,  as  was  usual 
at  Rome,  but  embalmed,  and  vast  quantities  of  rare  per- 
fumes were  sacrificed  on  the  funeral  pile.  This  peculiarity 
of  her  funeral  has  been  thought  to  strengthen  the  interest- 
ing legend  of  her  conversion  to  Christianity.  It  was  more 
probably  due  to  Nero's  frenzied  desire  to  give  a  unique 
burial  to  so  unique  a  goddess,  as  the  Senate  declared 
her  to  be.  It  is  unthinkable  that  Nero  should  make  such 
a  concession  to  Christian  ideas,  even  if  she  had  shared 
them  in  any  measure,  and  her  life  does  not  dispose  us  to 
claim  that  honour  for  her.  The  legend  has  no  foundation 
in  history,  and  the  early  Church  may  easily  be  relieved 
of  the  stain  of  having  counted  Poppaea  among  its  adherents. 

It  is  not  our  place  to  pursue  the  insanity  of  the  Em- 


ii8  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

peror  through  all  the  forms  it  assumed  after  the  death  of 
Poppaea,  but  he  took  a  third  wife,  whom  Mr.  Baring-Gould 
seems  to  have  overlooked,  and  we  must  briefly  relate  the 
story  of  her  experience.  Immediately  after  the  death  of 
Poppaea  Nero  took  a  consort  whom  the  pen  almost  shrinks 
from  describing.  It  seemed  to  him  that  he  discovered  a 
resemblance  to  his  beloved  Poppaea  in  one  of  his  freedmen, 
Sporus.  The  man  was  entrusted  to  the  surgeons  for  a  loath- 
some operation,  and  then  solemnly  married  to  the  Emperor. 
Dressed  in  the  Empress's  robes  and  jewels,  he  travelled  in 
Nero's  litter,  and  was  publicly  kissed  and  caressed  by 
him. 

This  abominable  comedy  soon  lost  its  interest,  and 
Nero  decided  to  marry  Octavia's  sister,  Antonia.  Recollect- 
ing the  recent  fate  of  her  sister,  she  boldly  refused,  and  she 
was  put  to  death  on  a  charge  of  aspiring  to  the  throne. 
Nero  then  chose  Statilia  Messalina,  the  granddaughter  of 
a  distinguished  and  wealthy  Senator  who  had  been  driven 
to  take  his  own  life  under  Agrippina.  The  last  part  of  the 
"  Annals  "  of  Tacitus,  which  would  cover  this  date,  is  miss- 
ing, and  if  we  are  to  believe  the  less  reputable  chroniclers, 
Messalina  had  already  been  familiar  with  Nero,  and  had 
married,  as  her  third  husband,  one  of  his  close  companions 
in  debauch,  Atticus  Vestinus.  She  is  described  as  beauti- 
ful, witty,  wealthy,  and  lax ;  but  the  description  is  applied 
to  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  ladies  of  the  time  that 
it  gives  little  aid  to  the  imagination.  From  some  later 
details  we  shall  conclude  that  she  had  more  culture,  and 
probably  more  character,  than  most  of  the  courtly  ladies  of 
Nero's  time.  One  is  disposed  to  think  that  she  married 
Nero  on  the  maxim,  literally  interpreted,  that  it  is  better  to 
be  married  than  burned.  Her  husband  was  one  night 
entertaining  his  friends  when  soldiers  from  the  palace 
entered  the  room.  They  took  him  to  his  bath,  opened  his 
veins,  and  let  him  bleed  to  death  ;  and  Statilia  Messalina 
became  the  tenth  Empress  of  Rome. 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  she  shrank,  with 
prudence,  from  the  executions  and  entertainments  which 


POPP/KA 

BUST    IN    THE    CAPITOLINK    MUSKUM,   RO.MK 


I20  THE    EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

more  industrious  provinces,  and  it  was  here  that  the  revolt 
began.  The  leader  of  the  troops  in  Gaul,  Vindex,  entered 
into  correspondence  with  the  troops  in  Spain.  The 
Spanish  commander,  Servius  Sulpicius  Galba,  was  a 
Roman  of  illustrious  family,  venerable  age,  and  stern 
character.  Nero  had  heard  that  the  purple  had  been 
offered  to  Galba,  and  that  the  legions  of  Gaul  and  Spain 
were  preparing  to  advance  on  Italy. 

On  his  return  to  Italy,  however,  Nero  hears  that  the 
German  legions  are  advancing  against  those  of  Gaul,  and 
that  Galba  is  hesitating.  He  gaily  resumes  his  follies, 
and  is  deaf  to  political  exhortations.  At  last  a  manifesto 
is  put  into  his  hands,  in  which  Vindex  refers  to  him  as  a 
"miserable  player,"  and  the  insult  to  his  art  cuts  deeply. 
He  writes  to  the  Senate  to  demand  redress,  and  sets  out 
for  Rome.  Nothing  in  the  whole  of  his  extraordinary 
career  is  so  tragi-comic  as  this  penultimate  scene.  Clothed 
in  a  mantle  of  purple  embroidered  with  gold  stars,  wearing 
the  Olympian  chaplet  on  his  head,  he  enters  Rome  as  the 
god  of  art.  Servants  bear  before  him  the  i,8oo  crowns  or 
chaplets  he  has  won  in  Greece ;  the  five  thousand  Augustans 
march  behind  his  chariot.  A  sacrifice  is  made  to  Apollo, 
and  the  games  resume  their  familiar  course.  Then  Nero  is 
told  that,  though  Vindex  has  committed  suicide,  the  German 
and  other  legions  have  joined  Galba,  and  the  fire  of  revolt 
is  spreading  round  the  Empire.  He  announces  that  he 
will  advance  on  Gaul.  The  ladies  of  his  harem,  who  form 
a  fair  regiment,  have  their  hair  cut  short,  and,  with  toy 
shields  and  other  theatrical  properties,  masquerade  as 
Amazons. 

The  last  scene  is  brief  and  inevitable.  Galba  is 
marching  on  Rome,  the  Praetorian  guards  have  been 
won  for  him,  the  nobles  find  it  safe  to  desert  Nero. 
The  nerveless  brute  whimpers  and  weeps  in  his  help- 
lessness. He  will  fly  to  Alexandria,  and  earn  his  living 
as  a  musician.  The  great  "  golden  house  "  is  silent  and 
deserted.  Rome  is  openly  deriding  him.  His  servants 
have  fled  ;    one  has  even   stolen  the   box   in  which  he 


THE  WIVES  OF  NERO  lai 

kept  poison  for  such  an  emergency.  The  faithful  Acte, 
Sporus,  and  a  very  few  of  those  who  fed  on  his  folly, 
remain  with  him.  Messalina  has  deserted  him,  and  will 
appear  later  as  the  friend  of  one  of  his  successors. 

In  the  great  silent  house,  with  its  walls  of  gold  and 
its  ceilings  of  ivory,  he  puts  off  the  purple  robes  and 
clothes  himself  in  an  old  shirt  and  a  ragged  cloak.  On 
a  miserable  horse  he  rides  with  them  across  the  vast 
deserted  park,  and  makes  for  the  house  of  one  of  his 
dependents,  a  few  miles  from  Rome.  There  they  admit 
him  by  a  hole  they  have  made  in  the  wall,  give  him  black 
bread  and  water,  and  cover  him  with  a  blanket.  They 
discuss  the  situation,  and  conclude  by  offering  him  a 
dagger.  He  shrinks,  like  Julia,  like  Messalina,  from  the 
horrible  darkness,  and  vainly  strains  his  eyes  for  a  ray 
of  hope.  At  last  they  hear  the  clatter  of  cavalry  on  the 
road,  and  Nero  feebly  points  the  dagger  at  his  breast,  for 
a  servant  to  drive  home.  And  when  the  customary 
cremation  is  over,  there  are  none  but  Acte  and  a  faithful 
old  nurse  to  lay  the  degraded  ashes  in  the  tomb. 

So  the  tenth  Empress  of  Rome  laid  down  her  brief 
dignity.  Statilia  Messalina  had  had  little  reason  to  follow 
Nero  in  his  humiliation.  Whether  the  charge  of  laxity 
that  is  brought  against  her  be  true  or  no,  she  was  a 
woman  of  exceptional  intelligence  and  culture,  and  had 
probably  only  married  Nero  out  of  fear.  We  meet  her 
again,  at  a  later  stage,  in  the  chronicles.  After  Galba's 
short  hour  of  supremacy  we  shall  find  an  equally  short 
reign  of  Salvius  Otho,  the  man  who  once  pillaged  taverns 
with  Nero  in  the  Subura.  Provincial  government  had 
sobered  him,  and  he  wrote  affectionate  letters  to  Messalina. 
He  would,  no  doubt,  have  made  her  Empress  once  more 
if  he  had  lived,  but  the  throne  was  wrested  from  him, 
and  Messalina  retired  to  the  calmer  world  of  letters  and 
rhetoric.  Our  last  glimpse  of  her  discovers  her  deliver- 
ing orations  of  great  eloquence  and  learning  among  the 
intellectual  ladies  of  Rome, 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    EMPRESSES   OF   THE  TRANSITION 

THE  house  of  Caesar  had  perished  with  Nero,  and 
few  sober  folk  can  have  regretted  that  it  had  no 
living  representative  to  win  the  fancy  of  the 
frivolous  people  or  the  blind  cupidity  of  the  Guards. 
There  must  have  been  men  living  in  Rome  who  had 
witnessed  the  whole  of  that  appalling  degradation,  so 
swift  it  had  been.  The  Caesars  had  sunk  in  little  over 
forty  years  from  the  sobriety  of  Octavian  to  the  insanity 
of  Nero  ;  their  consorts  had  fallen  from  the  strong  standard 
of  Livia  to  the  insipidity  of  Poppaea ;  the  resources  of  the 
Empire  had  been  squandered  in  spectacles  that  had  left  its 
people  nerveless  and  debauched ;  the  old  Roman  ideal  of 
character  had  been  almost  obliterated  in  the  Imperial  city. 
It  was  our  concern  to  see  what  part  the  Empresses  played 
in  this  lamentable  history  of  four  decades.  It  is,  on  the 
whole,  one  that  their  biographer  must  blush  to  acknow- 
ledge. We  must  remember,  however,  that  corrupt  rulers 
would  necessarily  choose  weak  or  corrupt  wives,  and  we 
cannot  affect  surprise  or  disappointment  when  we  find 
them  floating  in  the  swift  current. 

We  have  now  to  open  a  new  and  more  attractive 
gallery  of  Imperial  portraits,  to  pass  in  review  the  wives 
of  those  great  Emperors  who  restored  the  high  character 
of  Rome  and  strengthened  anew  the  fabric  of  the  Empire. 
A  very  brief  summary  of  events  will  suffice  to  link  the 
Caesars  with  the  Antonines,  and  introduce  to  us  one  or 
two  curious  types  of  Empresses  who  dimly  figure  in  the 
transition. 


THE   EMPRESSES  OF  THE  TRANSITION        123 

For  a  year  after  the  fall  of  Statilia  Messalina  the 
throne  of  the  Empress  was  vacant,  and  that  of  the  Em- 
peror had  three  successive  occupants.  Galba  was  a 
widower  at  the  time  of  his  elevation  to  the  throne.  We  saw 
in  an  earlier  chapter  that  Agrippina  had  wished  to  marry 
him  twenty-six  years  earlier,  and  he  had  refused.  His 
wife,  Lepida,  was  a  delicate  woman,  of  high  character, 
and  he  refused  to  divorce  her.  She  had  an  energetic 
champion  in  her  mother,  who  fought  Agrippina  sturdily 
and,  if  the  story  be  true,  laid  fair  patrician  hands  on  her. 
But  Lepida  died  long  before  her  husband  was  made  Em- 
peror, and  he  refused  to  marry  again.  His  reign  was  brief. 
Tradition  has  blamed  him  for  an  excessive  sternness  and 
parsimony.  They  were  not  inopportune  vices,  but  Rome 
had  been  too  long  habituated  to  indulgence,  and  Galba 
was  too  confident.  The  discontent  at  Rome  was  inflamed 
by  the  news  of  the  revolt  in  the  provinces,  and  within  a  few 
weeks  the  Guards,  to  whom  he  had  refused  the  customary 
donation,  set  up  a  new  Emperor,  and  put  Galba  to  death. 

The  new  ruler  was  no  other  than  the  first  husband  of 
Poppaea,  the  companion  of  Nero's  revels,  Salvius  Otho. 
Rome  acclaimed  the  choice,  and  expected  that  the  circus 
and  theatre  were  about  to  reopen  their  doors.  But  Otho, 
who  had  matured  during  his  years  of  office  in  Spain, 
turned  from  them  in  disgust.  He  did,  it  is  true,  restore 
the  statues  of  Poppaea,  and  contemplated  restoring  the 
discarded  statues  of  Nero,  but  the  alienation  of  Roman 
feeling  from  him  is  a  proof  that  he  intended  to  rule  with 
sobriety.  The  same  spirit  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  he 
corresponded  affectionately  with  Statilia  Messalina,  and 
apparently  thought  of  marrying  her.  But  the  legions  in 
the  provinces  almost  immediately  rebelled  against  him, 
and,  in  the  midst  of  the  struggle,  he  committed  suicide. 

There  had  been  no  Empress  of  Rome  for  twelve 
months.  With  the  death  of  Otho,  and  the  accession  of 
Vitellius,  we  come  to  the  eleventh  Empress,  Galeria  Fun- 
dana,  a  very  new  and  incongruous  type  in  the  series  of 
Imperial  women. 


124  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

The  name  of  Vitellius  is  already  familiar  to  us.  His 
father  was  the  fulsome  courtier  who  had  inspired  Caligula 
with  the  idea  that  he  was  a  god,  and  who  had  worn  one 
of  Messalina's  little  silk  shoes  under  his  tunic.  His  wife, 
Sextilia,  was  a  woman  of  strict  morality  and  unambitious 
temper,  but  their  son,  the  younger  Vitellius,  lived  in  too 
tainted  an  atmosphere  to  prefer  the  plainness  of  his 
mother  to  the  craft  and  greed  of  his  father.  He  had 
learned  vice  in  the  band  of  young  men  who  brought  so 
evil  a  fame  on  Tiberius's  villa  at  Capri,  and  had  made 
his  way  astutely  through  the  successive  reigns  of  Caligula, 
Claudius,  and  Nero.  He  had  made  a  considerable  fortune 
as  proconsul  of  Africa,  and  had,  on  his  return  to  Rome, 
married  Petronia,  the  daughter  of  a  wealthy  consul.  She 
settled  her  large  fortune  on  her  son,  and  when  Vitellius, 
having  consumed  his  own  wealth  in  luxury  and  riot,  went 
on  to  sacrifice  his  son  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the 
fortune  held  in  his  name,  Petronia  angrily  remonstrated, 
and  was  divorced. 

He  then  married  Galeria  Fundana.  She  was,  says 
Tacitus,  "  a  pattern  of  virtue,"  and  since  this  defect — as 
Vitellius  would  find  it — was  united  with  plainness  of  per- 
son, modesty  of  taste,  and  dull,  if  not  defective,  conversa- 
tion, the  match  was  a  singularly  unhappy  one.  Vitellius 
had  so  far  squandered  his  money  that  he  was  unable  to 
pay  his  expenses  to  Lower  Germany  when  Galba  gave 
him  the  command  of  the  troops  there.  How  he  obtained 
that  important  appointment  is  not  clear.  Some  say  that 
Galba  selected  him  because  he  was  not  ambitious ;  others 
that  he  secured  it  through  the  influence  of  the  "blue"  faction 
at  the  Circus,  of  which  he  was  a  partisan.  He  mortgaged 
his  house,  and  Sextilia  sold  her  jewels,  to  obtain  funds 
for  the  journey.  Fundana  and  her  child  were  left  in  a 
poor  tenement  at  Rome,  little  dreaming  that  they  would 
be  summoned  from  it  to  Nero's  "  golden  house  "  in  a  few 
weeks. 

It  is  expressly  recorded  that  Sextilia  and  Fundana  had 
no  ambition,  and  dreaded  lest  Vitellius  should  aspire  to 


THE  EMPRESSES  OF  THE  TRANSITION        125 

reach  the  dizzy  heights  which  some  early  prophet  had 
promised  him.  They  were,  therefore,  dismayed  to  hear, 
shortly  after  his  arrival  on  the  Rhine,  that  the  troops 
were  offering  to  secure  the  throne  for  him.  His  genial 
and  indulgent  treatment  of  the  soldiers  was  a  betrayal  of 
his  trust  to  the  stern  Galba,  and  may  have  been  deliber- 
ately effected  to  win  their  support.  He  became  very 
popular,  and  was  hailed  as  a  second  "  Germanicus."  Galba 
was  presently  murdered,  and,  as  the  German  legions  had 
had  no  part  in  the  choice  of  Otho,  they  urged  ViteUius 
to  lead  them  against  him.  ViteUius  wavered  for  a  time 
between  the  safe  and  considerable  means  of  self-indulgence, 
which  he  had  as  commander,  and  the  uncertain,  but 
immeasurably  greater,  prospect  which  the  throne  sug- 
gested to  his  sensual  dreams.  The  officers  conquered 
his  hesitation,  and  he  set  out  for  Rome  in  the  rear  of 
the  eight  legions  who  had  declared  for  him. 

Sextilia  and  Fundana  seemed  to  be  in  peril  when  the 
news  came  to  Rome  that  ViteUius  was  marching  upon  the 
city.  It  is  said  that  ViteUius  threatened  reprisals  if  his 
family  were  injured,  but  there  is  no  indication  that  Otho 
would  stoop  to  take  a  revenge  on  women  and  children. 
They  saw  him  march  out  at  the  head  of  his  troops  to  give 
battle  to  ViteUius,  and  waited  anxiously,  with  all  Rome, 
to  hear  the  issue  of  the  civil  war.  And  while  Senate  and 
people  were  enjoying  the  mummery  of  the  theatre,  a  horse- 
man rode  in  with  the  news  that  Otho  had  taken  his  own 
life,  and  ViteUius  was  leading  his  German  troops  upon 
Rome.  Senate  and  people  united  at  once  to  receive  him, 
and  sent  him  the  title  of  Augustus.  He  politely  declined 
it  for  the  time,  and  continued  his  leisurely  march  upon  the 
city.  There  had  been  many  a  triumphant  march  over  the 
roads  of  Italy  in  the  annals  of  Rome,  but  never  one  so 
singular  as  that  of  the  new  monarch.  "  The  roads  from 
sea  to  sea  groaned  with  the  burden  of  his  luxuries,"  says 
Tacitus ;  and,  if  we  distrust  Tacitus,  as  an  admirer  of 
Vitellius's  rival  and  successor,  all  the  Roman  writers  agree 
that  his  first  use  of  supreme  power  was  to  command  a 


126  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

stupendous  ministration  to  his  sensual  appetites.  He 
ordered  his  legions  to  move  slowly  southward,  while  he, 
in  their  train,  exhausted  each  successive  region  of  its 
delicacies,  and  filled  the  days  and  nights  with  his  princely 
feasting.  His  example  encouraged  his  wild  German  troops, 
and  their  line  of  march  could  be  traced  across  Gaul  and 
Italy  by  their  pillage,  cruelty,  and  debauchery. 

The  repeated  messages  from  the  provinces  filled  Rome 
with  laughter,  in  spite  of  its  anxiety.  People  remembered 
this  princely  epicure  sheltering,  a  few  months  before,  in  the 
poorer  quarter  of  the  town  and  evading  the  duns.  The 
modest  and  virtuous  Sextilia  and  Fundana  shrank  in  pain 
from  the  hollow  flattery  which  was  paid  them,  and  followed 
the  march  of  the  Emperor  with  disgust.  He  was  approach- 
ing Rome  at  the  head  of  sixty  thousand  men.  Legions  of 
tall,  fierce,  fur-clad  Germans,  with  heavy  javelins,  were 
thundering  along  the  Italian  roads  and  terrifying  the 
peasantry.  In  their  rear  was  a  vast  army  of  slaves,  cooks, 
comedians,  charioteers,  and  other  ministers  to  the  Imperial 
appetite.  He  had  sent  for  the  whole  of  Nero's  servants 
and  appointments.  It  was  said  that  he  even  intended  to 
outrage  one  of  the  most  sacred  traditions  of  the  city  by 
entering  it  in  full  armour,  at  the  head  of  an  army  with 
drawn  swords  ;  but  the  friends  who  met  him  at  the  Milvian 
Bridge  persuaded  him  to  change  his  costume,  and  sheathe 
the  swords  of  his  soldiers.  He  entered,  in  civil  toga,  at 
the  head  of  the  terrible  Germans,  his  officers  clad  in  white 
as  they  bore  the  eagles.  After  visiting  the  Capitol,  and 
addressing  the  Senate  in  terms  of  pleasant  submissiveness 
to  that  body  and  of  somewhat  nauseating  praise  of  himself, 
he  settled  in  Nero's  magnificent  palace  with  Fundana  and 
her  child.  His  troops,  debauched  with  the  license  of  their 
march,  scattered  in  disorder  through  the  city ;  and  Rome 
resigned  itself  to  the  inauspicious  rule  of  its  eighth 
Emperor. 

We  may  dismiss  the  nine  months  in  which  Galeria 
Fundana  was  Empress  of  Rome  in  a  phrase :  she  was  a 
helpless    and    disgusted   spectator  of   the   most   imperial 


THE   EMPRESSES  OF  THE   TRANSITION        127 

debauch  that  Rome  had  yet  witnessed.  Dio  strangely 
accuses  her  of  haughtily  complaining  of  the  poverty  of  the 
robes  she  found  in  Nero's  golden  house,  but  the  testimony 
to  her  modesty  is  too  strong  for  us  to  admit  this.  A  more 
credible  statement  in  the  chroniclers  is  that  she  begged  to 
be  allowed  to  retire  to  a  humble  dwelling  of  her  own,  and 
Vitellius  refused.  His  mother  did  not  long  survive  her 
mortification.  One  rumour  preserved  in  Suetonius  is  that 
Vitellius  had  her  starved  to  death,  as  it  was  predicted 
that  she  would  outlive  him  ;  another  version  says  that  he 
sent  her  poison,  at  her  own  request.  Fundana  was  left 
alone  to  JDewail  his  colossal  gluttony.  She  saw  his  chief 
officers  encourage  him  in  his  stupefying  orgies,  while  they 
enriched  themselves ;  and  she  had  to  submit  in  silence 
while  his  sister-in-law,  Triaria,  "  a  woman  of  masculine 
fierceness,"  goaded  him  to  continued  excesses.  During  the 
few  months  of  his  reign  he  spent  900,000,000  sesterces 
(about  ;^7,ooo,ooo)  in  eating,  drinking,  and  entertainment. 
He  had  three  meals  during  the  day,  and  ended  with  a  costly 
and  drunken  supper.  His  brother  one  day  entertained  him 
at  a  banquet,  at  which  two  thousand  choice  fishes  and  seven 
thousand  rare  birds  were  served.  Vitellius  in  return  gave 
a  banquet,  at  which  one  dish — a  compound  of  the  livers  of 
pheasants,  the  tongues  of  flamingoes,  the  brains  of  pea- 
cocks, the  entrails  of  lampreys,  and  the  roes  of  mullets- 
cost  more  than  the  whole  of  his  brother's  dinner. 

From  this  loathsome  and  stupid  dream  of  Imperial 
power  Vitellius  was  at  length  awakened  by  the  echoes  of 
rebellion  in  the  provinces.  After  a  few  futile  executions, 
and  several  relapses  into  his  besetting  gluttony,  he  was 
forced  to  set  out  for  the  north.  He  quickly  returned, 
however,  and  wandered  about  Rome  in  hysterical  im- 
potence, while  the  followers  of  Vespasian  closed  upon  the 
city.  Civil  war  had  broken  out,  and  the  Romans  gazed  with 
horror  on  the  sacred  Capitol  besieged  by  the  German  troops 
and  bursting  into  flames.  At  last  Vitellius  came  out  with 
Fundana  and  her  child,  in  mourning  dress,  and  announced 
that  he  would  resign.     The  consul  refused  his  sword,  and 


128  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

the  mournful  procession  directed  its  steps  towards  his 
brother's  house.  He  was  persuaded  to  return  to  the  palace, 
but  the  Vespasianists  captured  Rome,  and  he  was  taken  to 
Fundana's  house  on  the  Aventine.  From  this  he  somehow 
wandered  back  to  the  palace.  "  The  awful  silence  terrified 
him;  he  tried  the  closed  doors,  and  shuddered  at  the  empty 
chambers,"  says  Tacitus.  Dazed  and  incapable  of  flight, 
he  hid  in  the  sordid  room  where  the  dogs  were  kept. 
Here  the  soldiers  found  him,  torn  and  bleeding,  and  forced 
him  to  walk  the  streets,  while  they  kept  his  head  erect 
with  the  point  of  a  sword,  and  the  people  flung  filth  and 
epithets  at  him.  They  then  inflicted  on  him  a  slow  and 
painful  death,  and  flung  his  remains  in  the  Tiber. 

Fundana  was  spared,  and  her  daughter  honourably 
given  in  marriage,  by  his  magnanimous  successor.  From 
the  brief  and  unwelcome  splendour  of  the  "  golden  house  " 
she  passed  into  private  life,  and  lived  only  to  bemoan 
the  cruel  fate  that  had  lifted  her  husband  to  the  intoxi- 
cating height  of  the  Roman  throne. 

There  was  no  Empress  in  the  reigns  of  Vespasian  and 
Titus,  but  a  word  may  be  said  of  the  two  remarkable 
women  who  shared  their  power  to  some  extent.  Vespasian, 
whose  sober  and  solid  administration  it  would  be  pleasant 
to  contrast  with  the  orgiastic  reigns  of  his  predecessors, 
was  a  rough  soldier,  of  humble  extraction  and  homely 
ways.  He  had,  in  the  time  of  Caligula,  married  the 
mistress  of  a  knight,  Flavia  Domitilla,  who  remains  little 
more  than  a  name  in  the  chronicles.  He  had  won  dis- 
tinction under  Narcissus,  but  the  triumph  of  Agrippina 
drove  him  and  Domitilla  into  exile.  Nero  employed  him 
to  crush  the  rebellion  in  Judaea,  and  it  was  during  this 
campaign  that  his  wife  died,  leaving  him  with  her  two 
sons — his  successors — Titus  and  Domitian.  He  was,  there- 
fore, a  widower  when  the  Eastern  troops  made  him 
Emperor,  but  he  took  into  his  palace,  and  treated  as 
Empress,  an  emancipated  slave  of  the  name  of  Caenis. 

The  mistress  of  Vespasian  has  the  distinction  of  being 
associated — actively  and  usefully  associated — with  him  in 


THE   EMPRESSES   OF  THE  TRANSITION        129 

one  of  the  soundest  attempts  to  restore  the  decaying 
Empire.  She  had  been  in  the  service  of  Antonia,  the 
grandmother  of  Agrippina,  and  is  said  to  have  been  the 
one  who  first  disclosed  to  Tiberius  the  perfidy  of  Sejanus. 
From  the  first  she  was  a  dangerous  rival  of  Domitilla, 
and,  when  his  wife  died,  Vespasian  entered  into  the  quasi- 
matrimonial  relation  with  her  which  is  known  in  Roman 
law  as  contubernium.  She  would  probably  have  been 
Empress  if  the  law  had  permitted  him  to  contract  a 
solemn  marriage  with  her.  She  had  considerable  ability, 
but  an  unhappy  reputation  for  extortion  and  the  sale  of 
offices.  It  is  not  clear,  however,  that  the  wealth  she 
obtained  did  not  contribute  to  Vespasian's  rehabilitation 
of  the  resources  of  the  Empire.  They  abandoned  and 
destroyed  the  golden  house  of  Nero,  the  central  site  of 
which  is  now  marked  by  the  Flavian  Amphitheatre,  or 
Coliseum.  In  their  quiet  gardens  in  the  Quirinal  they 
received  any  citizen  who  cared  to  visit  them,  and  main- 
tained no  timorous  hedge  of  soldiers  between  themselves 
and  their  people.  They  wished  to  see  money  spent  on 
public  purposes,  or  hoarded  for  public  emergencies,  rather 
than  squandered.  "  My  hand  is  the  base  of  the  statue : 
give  me  the  money,"  Caenis  is  said  to  have  told  a  wealthy 
man  who  proposed  to  raise  a  statue  to  her;  but  Dio 
informs  us  that  this  and  other  stories  of  Caenis's  avarice 
properly  belong  to  Vespasian.  She  died,  however — if  the 
date  assigned  in  Dio  is  correct— in  the  second  year  of 
Vespasian's  reign,  and  must  not  be  credited  with  too 
large  a  share  in  that  great  purification  of  Rome  and  re- 
invigoration  of  its  life  with  healthy  provincial  blood  which 
Tacitus  regards  as  the  beginning  of  the  recovery  of  the 
Empire. 

Titus,  who  succeeded  his  father  in  the  year  79,  and 
reigned  for  two  years,  threatened  at  one  time  to  give 
Rome  an  even  more  singular  and  unwelcome  type  of 
Empress.  He  had  in  early  youth  married  Arricidia 
Tertulla,  who  died  soon  afterwards,  and  then  Marcia 
Furnilla,  a  lady  of  illustrious  family.     He  left  his  wife 

9 


I30  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

in  Rome  when  he  took  command  under  his  father  in 
Judaea,  and  became  infatuated  with  a  brilHant  princess 
of  the  Herod  family,  Berenice.  He  divorced  Furnilla, 
and  brought  Berenice  to  live  with  him  at  Rome.  But 
the  Romans  resented  the  prospect  of  a  Jewish  Empress, 
and  she  was  forced  to  return.  On  his  accession  to  the 
throne  he  made  no  attempt  to  enforce  her  on  them.  He 
reigned  alone  for  two  years,  "  the  love  and  delight  of 
the  human  race,"  and  maintained  the  sober  administration 
of  his  father. 

With  the  accession  of  his  younger  brother,  Domitian, 
Rome  received  a  new  Empress,  and,  by  an  unhappy 
coincidence,  saw  the  imperial  palace  return  to  the  evil 
ways  of  the  Caesars.  Those  of  our  time  who  attach 
almost  the  entire  importance  to  stock  or  birth,  and  little 
to  circumstances,  in  the  formation  of  character,  will  find 
a  peculiar  problem  in  Domitian  and  his  wife.  The 
Emperor  was  the  second  son  of  the  "  plain  Sabine  burgher" 
and  sturdy  soldier,  Vespasian,  and  of  the  lowly  provincial 
woman,  Flavia  Domitilla.  The  Empress,  Domitia  Longina, 
was  the  daughter  of  Domitius  Corbulo,  one  of  the  strongest 
and  ablest  generals  that  Rome  produced  in  the  first 
century.  Yet  of  these  sound  and  vigorous  stocks  came, 
in  one  generation,  one  of  the  most  morbid  of  the 
Emperors  and  an  Empress  who,  in  some  respects,  rivalled 
Messalina.  Rome  knew  them  both,  and  had  no  false 
^hope. 
r  Domitia — as  she  is  usually  called — makes  her  first 
appearance  as  a  young  girl  of  great  beauty  and  promise, 
caressed  and  protected  by  the  wealth  and  prestige  of  her 
distinguished  father,  who,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  was  a 
brother  of  Caligula's  masculine  wife  Caesonia.  She  was 
married  to  a  noble  of  distinction  and  character,  Lucius 
iElius  Lamia  ^Emilianus,  and  she  seems  to  have  been  an 
estimable  young  matron  until  her  father  incurred  the  anger 
of  Nero  and  was  forced  to  commit  suicide.  Procopius  and 
Josephus,  indeed,  represent  her  as  virtuous  to  the  end,  but 
there  seems  to  be  little  room  for  doubt  that  the  nearer  and 


P^HI 

■K  ^'  *■  *  *  * '    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 

I^^^^^^H 

H 

^^nM^H 

^^1 

i^^^^^^^^^^^i 

bH 

DOMITIA 

BUST   IN    UKFIZt   GALLERY,    KLORENCK 


THE   EMPRESSES  OF  THE  TRANSITION        131 

less  indulgent  authorities  are  correct.  Her  young  mind 
opened  on  the  sordid  scenes  of  the  closing  part  of  Nero's 
reign  and  the  folly  of  Vitellius.  She  then  met  the 
fascinating  and  effeminate  Domitian,  and  very  speedily 
capitulated  to  his  assaults. 

Gibbon  speaks  of  him  as  "  the  timid  and  inhuman 
Domitian,"  while  Dio  opens  his  biographical  sketch  of  the 
Emperor  with  the  deliberate  epithet,  '*  bold  and  wrathful." 
We  shall  find  a  very  natural  dread  of  assassination  in 
Domitian's  later  years,  but  he  was  undoubtedly  bold  and 
crafty  in  the  service  of  Venus,  and  a  stranger  to  moral 
sentiment.  His  elder  brother  Titus  had  developed  the 
manly  qualities  of  their  father  on  the  battlefields  of  Judaea, 
and  had  proved  strong  enough  to  crush  his  irregular 
feelings  on  his  accession  to  the  throne.  Domitian  had 
remained  at  Rome,  discharging  only  civic  duties,  and  had 
become  one  of  the  most  heartless  dandies  in  the  group  of 
degenerate  young  patricians.  During  the  civil  strife  of  the 
Vitellianists  and  Vespasianists  on  the  streets  of  Rome  he 
had  made  his  escape  in  the  fitting  disguise  of  a  priest  of 
Isis.  Titus  knew  his  vicious  and  luxurious  ways,  and  en- 
deavoured to  check  him  by  offering  him  his  own  charming 
daughter  Julia  in  marriage;  but  Domitian  was  engaged 
in  fascinating  the  pretty  and  accomplished  wife  of  Lamia 
^milianus,  and  refused.  Titus,  on  his  accession,  associated 
him  in  the  government,  and  his  first  act  was  to  separate 
his  mistress  from  her  husband,  and  marry  her. 

Domitia's  triumph  was  quickly  tempered  with  morti- 
fication. Julia  married  her  cousin  Sabinus,  and,  out  of 
pique  or  devilry,  Domitian  now  discovered  her  charm  and 
seduced  her.  To  such  a  pair  as  these  the  attainment  of 
supreme  power  meant  an  occasion  of  Imperial  license,  and 
sober  Romans  saw  their  community  rapidly  lose  the  ground 
that  had  been  won  in  the  previous  reigns.  It  was  even 
rumoured  that  Domitian  had  hastened  his  brother's  death 
by  putting  him  in  a  box  of  snow  during  his  last  illness, 
though  this  remains  no  more  than  an  idle  rumour.  At  all 
events,  Domitia  soon  discovered  the  despicable  character 


132  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

for  whom — or  for  whose  prospects — she  had  abandoned 
her  saner  husband.  While  the  affairs  of  the  Empire  needed 
his  most  strenuous  attention,  he  would  spend  hours  catching 
flies  and  spitting  them  with  a  bodkin ;  and  from  the 
spitting  of  flies  he  presently  passed  to  the  larger  sport  of 
murdering  men.  He  conducted  his  little  frontier-wars  from 
safe  and  luxurious  quarters,  and  came  home  to  enjoy  a 
triumph  and  erect  a  colossal  bronze  memorial  of  his  valour. 
He  banished  eunuchs  from  Rome,  and  kept  them  in  his 
palace ;  waged  war  against  vice  in  all  forms,  and  practised 
it  in  all  forms.  In  the  general  relaxation  of  Roman 
manners  even  the  Vestal  Virgins  had  been  for  some 
decades  permitted  an  alleviation  of  their  onerous  vows. 
Domitian  posed  as  a  moralist,  on  no  other  apparent  ground 
than  that  he  was  closely  acquainted  with  every  shade  of 
immorality,  and  drastically  punished  them.  He  raised 
fine  public  buildings,  and  depleted  the  public  treasury  by 
reckless  expenditure  and  incompetent  administration ;  pro- 
secuted officials  for  extortion,  and  put  men  to  death  for 
their  wealth;  gave  brilliant  entertainments,  and  darkened 
the  city  and  the  Empire  with  his  sanguinary  brooding. 

If  we  were  to  accept  Josephus's  estimate  of  the  virtue  of 
Domitia,  we  should  conceive  her  as  living  in  melancholy 
isolation  in  the  gloomy  palace,  an  outraged  spectator  of 
her  husband's  relations  with  Julia.  But  there  is  good 
evidence  that  she  sought  relief  with  something  of  the 
freedom  of  a  Messalina.  An  authentic  occurrence  in  the 
third  year  of  Domitian's  reign  puts  her  guilt  beyond  ques- 
tion. He  had  the  actor  Paris  murdered  in  the  street,  and 
divorced  Domitia.  The  people  boldly  sympathized  with 
her,  and  covered  with  flowers  the  spot  on  which  Paris  had 
been  killed.  The  Emperor  had  a  number  of  them  executed, 
but  public  feeling  seems  to  have  been  expressed  so  strongly 
that  he  was  forced  to  recall  Domitia  to  the  palace,  and  the 
sordid  comedy  ran  on  amid  the  jeers  of  Rome.  A  poet 
was  put  to  death  for  making  it  the  theme  of  his  verse; 
Domitia's  former  husband  and  others  were  executed  for 
their  freedom  of  speech.    Then  the  beautiful  and  capti- 


THE   EMPRESSES  OF  THE  TRANSITION        133 

vating  Julia  perished  miserably  in  an  attempt  of  Domitian's 
to  destroy  the  too  obvious  proof  of  their  incest,  and  he 
became  more  sombre  than  ever. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  tell  the  long  and  dreary  story 
of  the  reign  of  Domitian,  of  which,  for  twelve  further  years, 
the  Empress  remains  an  inconspicuous,  and  perhaps  a 
sobered,  spectator.  For  a  few  years  he  maintained  his 
singular  and  obscure  mixture  of  good  and  evil,  but  the 
brighter  features  of  his  administration  gradually  faded, 
and  a  horrible  gloom  settled  on  the  palace  and  the  city. 
Hosts  of  spies  and  informers  sprang  up  ;  large  numbers 
of  nobles,  of  both  sexes,  were  executed  or  banished,  on 
the  slightest  suspicion,  and  their  wealth  divided  between 
the  informers  and  the  Emperor's  shrinking  treasury.  So 
great  was  his  dread  of  assassination  that  he  lined  the 
portico  at  the  palace,  in  which  he  used  to  walk,  with  white 
glazed  tiles  that  would  reflect  the  approach  of  any  person 
behind  him.  But  an  extraordinary  incident  that  Dio  relates 
will  suffice  to  give  some  idea  of  the  reign  of  terror  under 
which  the  Empress  and  all  Rome  suffered. 

A  number  of  the  leading  citizens  of  Rome  were  sum- 
moned to  a  banquet  at  the  palace  at  a  late  hour  of  the 
night.  They  were  frozen  with  horror  when  they  found 
that  the  entire  dining-room — walls,  ceiling,  and  floor — 
was  draped  in  black,  and  a  miniature  tombstone,  with  his 
name  engraved  on  it,  was  placed  opposite  each  guest.  As 
they  gazed,  a  number  of  nude  boys,  whose  bodies  were 
washed  with  ink,  burst  into  the  room  and  danced  amongst 
them,  and  then  the  dishes  of  a  funeral  banquet  were  served. 
The  guests  sat  silent  and  shivering;  the  Emperor  grimly 
discoursed  to  them  of  deaths  and  executions.  When  the 
banquet  was  over,  they  were  relieved  to  find  themselves 
dismissed.  They  found,  however,  that  their  litters  had 
been  sent  away,  and  they  were  put  into  strange  vehicles, 
with  strange  servants.  The  gloomy  journey  ended  at  their 
own  houses,  and  they  were  beginning  to  breathe,  when 
they  were  thrown  into  fresh  alarm  by  the  news  that  a 
messenger  had  come  from  the  palace.    The  messenger  to 


134  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

each  guest  was  one  of  the  dancing  boys,  now  cleaned, 
perfumed,  and  clothed  with  flowers,  bearing  the  gold  and 
silver  vessels  which  the  guest  had  used  at  the  banquet. 
The  boys  and  the  dishes  were  presented  to  them  with  the 
Emperor's  greeting. 

Unhappily,  Domitian  did  not  confine  himself  to  intimi- 
dation. The  heads  of  the  wealthier  nobles  fell  in  quick 
succession,  and,  in  great  secrecy,  amid  an  army  of  spies, 
the  Empress  and  a  few  others  came  to  an  understanding. 
The  story  of  the  actual  fall  of  the  tyrant  has  clearly 
been  embroidered  with  a  good  deal  of  unauthentic  detail 
in  popular  gossip,  but  even  in  its  most  sober  version  it  does 
not  lack  romance. 

The  version  which  Dio  assures  us  he  "  had  heard  "  is 
one  that  the  conscientious  historian  must  hesitate  to  accept. 
The  Emperor,  he  says,  had  been  informed  of  the  con- 
spiracy, and  had  drawn  up  a  list  of  those  who  were  to  be 
executed  for  taking  part  in  it.  He  put  the  list  under  his 
pillow,  with  the  sword  which  he  always  kept  there,  and 
went  to  sleep.  We  have  previously  seen  something  of 
the  bejewelled  boys  who  used  to  run  with  great  freedom 
about  the  palaces  of  the  Romans  of  the  first  century. 
Domitian,  the  great  censor  of  other  people's  vices,  had  a 
number  of  them,  and  the  legend  is  that  one  of  them,  playing 
in  his  bedroom,  noticed  the  parchment  under  his  pillow, 
and  took  it  out  into  the  palace.  Domitia  met  the  boy,  and 
idly  glanced  at  the  parchment.  She  saw  her  own  name 
at  the  head  of  the  list  of  the  condemned,  and  at  once 
summoned  the  other  conspirators.  They  entered  the 
Emperor's  room,  snatched  the  sword  from  under  his  pillow, 
and  despatched  him. 

Pretty  as  the  story  is,  we  must  prefer  the  more  prosaic 
account  given  us  by  Suetonius,  who  lived  in  the  next 
generation.  Domitia  felt  that  the  Emperor  had  at  last 
conceived  a  design  on  her  life,  and  she  sent  her  steward 
to  despatch  him.  He  offered  Domitian  a  fictitious  report 
of  a  plot,  and  stabbed  him  while  he  read  it.  Other  servants 
rushed  in  at  the  signal,  and  completed  the  assassination. 


THE   EMPRESSES   OF  THE  TRANSITION        135 

It  is  the  one  action  that  historians  have  recorded  to  the 
honour  of  the  twelfth  Empress  of  Rome,  and  we  leave 
her  company  with  little  regret.  She  was  an  ordinary 
woman  of  the  patrician  world  at  the  time — fair,  frail,  accom- 
plished, and  luxurious.  With  the  death  of  her  husband 
she  merges  in  the  indistinguishable  crowd  of  selfish  and 
wayward  ladies  on  whom  Juvenal  was  then  beginning  to 
pour  his  exaggerated  rhetoric. 

It  remains  to  describe  very  briefly  how  the  sceptre 
passes  into  the  nobler  hands  of  the  Stoic  Emperors  and 
their  wives.  The  throne  was  offered  to,  and  accepted  by, 
M.  Cocceius  Nerva,  an  aged  noble  of  known  moderation 
and  long  public  service.  He  at  once  removed  all  traces 
of  the  hateful  reign  of  his  predecessor,  and  entered  upon 
a  sober  and  useful  administration  of  the  Empire.  He  was 
in  the  later  sixties  of  his  age,  and  we  find  no  mention  of 
a  wife.  But  the  task  of  enforcing  sobriety  on  so  corrupted 
a  population  was  too  great  for  his  age  and  moderate  ability. 
A  conspiracy  against  him  was  discovered.  He  disarmed 
the  conspirators  by  inviting  them  to  sit  by  him  in  the 
theatre,  and  even  putting  a  sword  in  their  hands  and  asking 
them  what  they  thought  of  its  keenness ;  but  he  saw  that 
a  stronger  man  was  needed,  and  he  chose  as  his  colleague 
Marcus  Ulpius  Nerva  Trajanus,  a  Spaniard  of  great 
military  ability  and  commanding  personality,  who  was 
then  at  the  head  of  the  troops  in  Germany.  Nerva  died 
soon  afterwards,  and,  with  the  accession  of  Trajan,  we 
come  to  the  thirteenth  Empress  of  Rome  and  the  com- 
mencement of  a  new  and  more  splendid  chapter  in  the 
story  of  the  Empire. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PLOTINA 

"  T  F,"  says  Gibbon,  "  a  man  were  called  to  fix  the  period 
X  in  the  history  of  the  world,  during  which  the  con- 
dition of  the  human  race  was  most  happy  and  pros- 
perous, he  would,  without  hesitation,  name  that  which 
elapsed  from  the  death  of  Domitian  to  the  accession  of 
Commodus " ;  and  he  observes  of  Antoninus  Pius  and 
Marcus  Aurelius  that  "  their  united  reigns  are  possibly 
the  only  period  of  history  in  which  the  happiness  of  a  great 
people  was  the  sole  object  of  government." 

This  monumental  eulogy  of  the  period  which  we  now 
approach — a  eulogy  which  the  more  penetrating  study  of 
Renan  and  the  more  recent  research  of  M.  Boissier  and 
Dr.  Dill  have  not  materially  lessened — will  suffice  to  warn 
the  inexpert  reader  against  the  ancient  and  popular  legend 
that  Rome  continued  to  sink  under  the  burden  of  its  vices 
until  it  tottered  into  the  tomb  of  outworn  nations.  Under 
the  Empresses  whom  we  have  now  to  consider  there  was 
a  great  improvement  of  character  and  recovery  of  vigour 
in  the  Roman  Empire,  but  before  we  pass  to  that  brighter 
phase  I  would  enter  a  brief  protest  against  the  general 
exaggeration  of  the  darkness  of  the  period  we  have  tra- 
versed. Even  under  its  worst  rulers  Rome  was  far  from 
being  wholly  corrupt.  The  vices  of  a  Messalina,  the  crimes 
of  an  Agrippina,  and  the  follies  of  a  Poppaea,  stand  out 
so  prominently  in  that  period  only  because  they  were 
perpetrated  on  the  height  of  the  throne.  Even  they  were 
hardly  worse  than  the  crimes  and  follies  of  the  wives  or 

X36 


PLOTINA  137 

mistresses  of  kings  in  many  a  less  censured  period  of 
history ;  and,  if  you  care  to  count  them,  the  lilies  were  as 
numerous  as  the  poppies  in  this  first  series  of  Empresses, 
but  the  lilies  drooped  earlier,  and  have  been  less  noticed. 
Whenever,  in  the  course  of  our  story,  the  light  has  passed 
from  the  throne  to  the  less  elevated  crowd,  we  have  found 
fine  character  mingled  with  the  corrupt  even  in  the  darkest 
years  of  the  early  Empire.  The  heads  that  fell  before 
the  Imperial  monsters  were  as  many  as  the  heads  that 
bowed. 

The  truth  is  that,  if  we  are  not  misled  by  the  hasty 
generalizations  and  plebeian  diatribes  which  Juvenal,  in  his 
"  Satires,"  founds  upon  the  dubious  bits  of  gossip  that  he 
picked  up  on  the  fringe  of  Roman  society,  and  against 
which  historians  now  warn  us,  there  was  much  the  same 
diversity  of  conduct  in  the  early  Empire  as  in  most  of  the 
corresponding  periods  of  luxury.      The  wealthier  women 
of  Rome  assuredly  fell  far  short  of  the  cloistered  virtue  of 
the  maid  and  the  matron  of  Greece  ;  but  Greece  had  only 
succeeded  in  maintaining  that  standard  of  domestic  virtue 
in  its  wives  and  daughters  by  cultivating  a  high  caste  of 
courtesans  for  their  roaming  husbands.     It   may   be  ad- 
mitted, too,  that  the  Roman  woman  was  morally  inferior 
to  the  wife  of  the  Egyptian  noble,  and  to  the  wife  of  the 
noble  or  the  wealthy  merchant  of  Babylonia.      But  the    . 
patrician  women,  even  of  Caesarean  Rome,  will  compare 
with  the  women  of  most  of  the  later  civilizations  at  the   J 
same  stage  of  development  ;  at  the  stage,  that  is  to  say, 
when  the  nation  relaxes  from  the  strain  of  empire-making, 
and  its  veins  are  flushed  with  the  wealth  of  its  conquests. 
I  would  instance  the  women  of  the  early  Teutonic  nations 
as  soon  as  they  settle  on  southern  Europe ;  the  women  of 
Italy  in  the  early  Middle  Ages ;   the  women  of  England 
under  the  Stuarts  and,  after  a  later  expansion,  under  the 
Georges ;  the  women  of  France  under  Louis  XIII   and 
Louis  XIV ;  the  women  of  Russia  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury.   At  Rome,  in  spite  of  the  positive  insistence  on  vice 
of  CaHgula,  Messalina,  and  Nero,  in  spite  of  their  determined 


138  THE   EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

effort  to  weed  out  the  good,  we  have  found  virtue  and 
courage  springing  up  afresh  in  each  generation. 

We  now  come  to  a  period  when,  three  centuries  before 
the  fall  of  Rome,  the  Empire  is  purged  of  its  exceptional 
corruption,  and  character  assumes  the  normal  diversity 
that  it  has  in  any  old  and  wealthy  civilization.  The  city 
of  Rome  was  assuredly  vicious  and  in  decay.  But  the  city 
was  not  the  Empire,  as  those  rhetoricians  forget  who  talk 
of  its  entire  demoralization.  Rome  had  been  drenched 
with  degrading  agencies  for  half  a  century ;  but  there  was 
a  quite  normal  amount  of  stout  will  and  high  character  in 
the  provinces,  and  this  is  now  infused  more  freely  into  the 
metropolis.  It  is  only  by  a  similar  influx  of  sounder  blood 
from  the  provinces  that  any  great  city  survives  the  feverish 
waste  of  its  tissue.  The  remedy  was  retarded  in  Rome 
because  the  provincials,  even  of  Italy,  but  especially  of 
Gaul  and  Spain,  were  of  alien  race.  Rome  jealously 
remembered  that  it  was  the  conqueror ;  the  rest  were  the 
conquered.  Under  Vespasian,  however,  the  provincials 
were  admitted  more  freely,  and  with  the  accession  of  a 
Spaniard,  Trajan,  the  process  increased. 

In  the  remote  and  primitive  settlement  which  Agrippina 
had  established  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  where  the 
towers  of  Cologne  Cathedral  now  keep  watch  over  a 
splendid  city,  there  dwelt,  in  the  year  97,  the  commander 
of  the  forces  in  Lower  Germany,  Marcus  Ulpius  Trajanus, 
with  his  wife  and  a  few  female  relatives.  Trajan  was  of  a 
moderate  Spanish  family,  and  had,  like  his  father,  cut  his 
own  path  in  the  military  service  of  the  Empire.  He  was 
unambitious,  but  popular.  A  large,  handsome  man,  in  his 
forty-fifth  year,  of  singularly  graceful  bearing  and  serene 
features,  he  charmed  everybody  by  his  simplicity  and 
affability  of  manner,  and  liked  a  good  carouse  and  a  rough 
soldierly  jest.  His  wife  Plotina  was  a  plain,  honest  matron 
of  unknown  origin.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  she  was 
related  to  Pompeius  Planta,  at  one  time  Governor  of 
Egypt,  but  the  only  ground  for  the  conjecture  seems  to 
be  that  Planta  was  a  friend  of  Trajan's.     As  she  had 


PLOTINA  139 

neither  beauty  of  person  nor  romantic  defect  of  character, 
the  chroniclers  have  left  her  largely  to  our  imagination ; 
but  she  was  a  type  of  woman  whom  it  is  not  difficult  to 
picture — a  woman  of  plain  features,  level  judgment,  and  of 
what  is  euphemistically  called  grave  but  agreeable  con- 
versation. She  was  by  no  means  brilliant,  but  her  close 
friendship  for  Hadrian  suggests  that  she  was  not  too  dull 
and  prosy,  and  had  pretensions  to  culture.  Her  ways  were 
simple,  and  her  character  can  be  relieved  of  the  one 
imputation  made  against  it.  She  compares  well  with 
Livia,  but  as  a  higher  bourgeoise  compares  with  a  grande 
dame.  In  a  word,  she  had  none  of  the  autumnal  colour, 
the  beauty  of  decay,  of  the  Caesarean  women,  but  she  had 
the  less  aesthetic  and  more  useful  quality  that  they  lacked, 
conscientiousness.  To  the  courtly  Pliny  ("  Panegyr.,"  83) 
she  is  the  embodiment  of  all  the  virtues. 

With  her  at  Cologne  was  Trajan's  sister  Marciana,  a 
widow  of  much  the  same  complexion  as  Plotina,  and 
Marciana's  daughter  Matidia,  who  in  turn  had  two  daughters, 
Sabina  and  Matidia.  We  can  imagine  the  agitation  of  this 
tranquil  establishment  among  the  forests  of  Germany  when 
a  courier  came  from  Rome  with  the  news  that  Trajan  was 
chosen  as  colleague  of  the  Emperor.  They  had  left  Rome 
six  years  before,  in  the  middle  of  Domitian's  reign.  How- 
ever, they  seem  to  have  received  very  sedately  the  prospect 
of  a  removal  from  the  camp  on  the  Rhine  to  the  Imperial 
palace.  Although  Nerva  died  in  the  following  January  (98), 
Trajan  remained  for  the  year  in  Germany,  completing  his 
task  of  strengthening  the  frontier  against  the  northern 
barbarians.  Then  the  family  set  out  on  the  long  journey 
to  the  capital. 

The  fame  of  Trajan's  simplicity  and  geniality  of  manner 
had  preceded  him,  but  Rome  looked  with  surprise  on  an 
Emperor  who  could  wait  a  year  before  occupying  the 
palace,  enter  the  city  on  foot,  without  guards,  and  talk  so 
affably  with  any  of  his  subjects.  Nor  was  Plotina  long 
before  she  showed  that  they  had  received  a  new  type  of 
Empress.     As  she  ascended  the  steps  of  the  palace,  she 


I40  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

turned  round  and  said  to  those  below :  "  As  I  enter  here 
to-day,  I  trust  I  shall  leave  it  when  the  time  comes."  The 
refreshing  amiability,  simplicity,  and  moderation  of  the 
Imperial  couple  captivated  the  Romans,  and  Trajan  re- 
sponded to  their  good  will  with  the  most  judicious  and 
untiring  exertions  in  the  public  service.  He  trod  out  at 
once  the  hideous  brood  of  informers,  checked  corrupt 
officials,  and  appointed  the  best  men  to  public  offices. 
Indifferent  to  the  splendour  and  luxury  of  even  the  modest 
palace  of  Vespasian,  he  spent  most  of  his  reign  in  frontier- 
wars  or  in  long  journeys  for  the  purpose  of  bracing  the 
relaxed  frame  of  the  Empire ;  and  he  enriched  and  adorned 
Rome  as  no  Emperor  had  done  since  Octavian. 

That  he  was  vigorously  supported  by  Plotina  is  quite 
certain,  and  there  is  evidence  that  she  was  much  more  than 
a  sympathetic  witness  of  his  labours.  It  is  related  by  the 
Emperor  Julian  that  Trajan  often  sought  the  advice  of 
Plotina,  and  that  it  was  always  sound.  At  the  beginning 
of  his  reign  she  had  occasion  to  use  her  influence.  Trajan's 
dislike  of  informers  was  carried  so  far  that,  when  a  case  of 
real  extortion  occurred  in  the  provinces,  the  injured  were 
prevented  from  bringing  it  to  his  notice.  They  appealed 
to  Plotina,  and  she  put  the  case  judiciously  to  her  husband 
and  secured  relief.  In  many  other  ways  she  gave  useful 
assistance,  so  that  the  Senate  offered  the  title  of  Augusta 
to  her  and  Marciana.  They  declined,  as  Trajan  had  refused 
the  special  title  offered  to  him,  but  he  relented,  and  they 
followed  his  example. 

The  reign  of  Trajan  and  Plotina  was  thus  one  long 
episode  of  strenuous  and  enlightened  public  service,  but 
before  we  enter  into  the  particulars  of  their  achievements 
it  is  proper  to  endeavour  to  obtain  a  nearer  view  of  their 
personalities.  In  this  the  chroniclers  give  us  little  assist- 
ance, and  the  result  cannot  be  very  interesting.  It  is  ever 
the  painful  reflection  of  the  biographer  that  the  description 
of  a  sober  life — a  life  which  neither  sinks  to  the  lower  levels 
of  vice  nor  soars  to  some  unaccustomed  height  of  virtue — 
has  little  interest  for  the  majority  of  his  readers ;  and  this 


PLOTINA  141 

was  the  life  of  the  Imperial  court  during  the  twenty  years 
of  Trajan's  reign.  The  Emperor  himself  was  no  paragon. 
Preferring  the  easy  ways  of  a  camp,  he  drank  somewhat 
deeply  of  nights,  his  jests  were  apt  to  be  coarse,  and  he 
was  popularly  accused  of  the  vice  which  so  generally 
infected  the  men  of  the  Empire  Yet  he  had  this  distinction 
in  a  long  line  of  Emperors,  in  the  prime  of  life,  that  no 
woman  ever  shared,  or  sullied,  his  affection  for  Plotina. 
Gibbon  has  remarked,  in  extenuation  of  the  conduct  of  his 
successor,  that  "  of  the  first  fifteen  Emperors,  Claudius  was 
the  only  one  whose  taste  in  love  was  entirely  correct." 
That  would  be  a  high  compliment  to  Messalina,  but  in 
point  of  fact,  as  we  saw,  Claudius  was  not  entitled  to  that 
distinction.  The  charge  against  Trajan  is  vague,  and  we 
must  rather  award  the  distinction  to  him.  Merivale  some- 
what harshly  speaks  of  him  as  only  maintaining  his  self- 
respect  because  of  the  bluntness  of  his  moral  sense.  If  we 
put  his  strong  sense  of  public  duty  and  his  fidelity  in  the 
scale  against  his  one  certain  indulgence,  in  drink,  we  shall 
hardly  agree  to  that  verdict. 

The  virtue  of  Plotina,  on  the  other  hand,  has  been  more 
seriously  assailed  by  both  ancient  and  recent  writers.  In 
the  service  of  the  Emperor  was  a  very  handsome  and 
accomplished  youth  named  Hadrian,  an  orphan,  with  great 
taste  and  skill  in  art  and  letters.  He  had  been  employed 
by  Trajan  at  Cologne,  both  in  military  service  and  in  filling 
up  the  long  nights  with  an  occasional  carouse,  and,  after 
their  return  to  Rome,  he  was  a  great  favourite  of  the  ladies 
at  the  palace.  They  formed  a  little  circle  in  which  letters 
were  discussed  and  literary  men  were  patronized.  There 
was  something  of  a  literary  revival ;  it  was  the  age  of 
Juvenal,  Martial,  Quinctilian,  Pliny,  Suetonius,  Celsus,  and 
Dio  Chrysostom.  Hadrian  was  a  brilliant  student,  and  he 
appreciated  this  open  and  easy  way  to  distinction.  Trajan 
is  represented  as  using  the  young  man  for  companion,  but 
not  regarding  him  as  fitted  for  promotion,  so  that  it  fell  to 
Plotina  to  urge,  and  ultimately  to  make,  the  fortune  of 
the  future  Emperor.    The  magnificent  mausoleum  which 


142  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Hadrian  raised  in  memory  of  her  long  testified  to  his 
ardent  and  grateful  attachment. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  exaggeration  in  this  conception. 
We  shall  see  that  Trajan  promoted  Hadrian  in  such  a  way 
as  to  mark  him  in  the  eyes  of  all  as  his  successor ;  and  his 
chief  advisers  in  this  were  the  statesmen  Sura  and  Attianus. 
In  any  case,  there  is  no  proof  that  Plotina,  who  must  have 
been  twenty  years  older  than  Hadrian,  felt  more  than  a 
very  natural  fondness  for  the  gifted  and  charming  youth. 
Pliny  mentions  that  her  friendship  for  him  gave  rise  to 
gossip,  but  insists  that  she  was  "  a  most  virtuous  woman." 
The  "Augustan  History"  leaves  her  unassailed.  Suetonius 
has  no  scandal  to  record.  Dio  alone  describes  their  attach- 
ment as  "  erotic  love " ;  but  on  an  earlier  page  Dio  has 
expressly  said  that  her  career  was  stainless.  When  he  has 
described  her  standing  at  the  top  of  the  palace  steps,  to  say 
that  she  trusted  to  leave  that  palace  just  as  she  entered  it, 
he  adds :  "  And  she  so  bore  herself  throughout  the  whole 
reign  as  to  incur  no  blame."  ^  The  remarkable  eulogy  of 
Pliny,  the  silence  of  the  other  authorities,  and  the  conduct 
of  Trajan,  must  enable  us  to  choose  between  these  contra- 
dictory statements  of  Dio,  and  indeed  compel  us  to  reject 
this  unsubstantial  charge  against  the  virtue  of  Plotina. 

The  other  ladies  of  the  Imperial  household  were  equally 
without  reproach,  and  life  at  the  palace  was  harmonious 
and  uneventful.  Emperor  and  Empress  moved  about 
Rome  without  guards,  and  entertained,  or  were  entertained 
by,  their  friends  in  a  simple  and  unceremonious  way.  But 
Trajan  had  little  love  for  the  atmosphere  of  a  palace,  and 
an  outbreak  in  Dacia,  two  years  after  his  arrival  in  Rome, 
gave  him  an  excuse  to  return  to  the  camp.  He  took 
Hadrian  with  him,  and  remained  in  Dacia  a  year.  In  the 
year  103  he  rejoined  Plotina  at  Rome,  but  the  war  broke 
out  afresh  shortly  afterwards,  and  it  now  took  him  three 
years  to  subdue  the  province  and  link  it  to  the  Empire  by 
a  great  bridge  over  the  Danube.    He  returned  in  107,  and 

*  Koi  ovra  ye  iavr^v  ith  ndoTji  r^s  apxrjs  dirjyaytv  &ar(  fiijiffiUw  tmyyopiatt 
trxtiv:  Ixviii.  5. 


i 


PLOTINA 

STATUE   IN   THE    I.OUVKE 


PI.OTINA  143 

spent  seven  years  in  Rome  before  he  set  out  on  his  final 
journey  in  the  year  114. 

The  prolonged  absence  of  the  Emperor  threw  a  good 
deal  of  responsibility  on  Plotina,  and  it  would  be  of  great 
interest,  if  it  were  possible,  to  trace  her  share  in  the  vast 
work  which  was  done  for  the  city  and  the  Empire  at  that 
time.    This,  unfortunately,  we  cannot  do.    There  were  able 
counsellors  left  at  Rome  in  Trajan's  absence,  and  no  doubt 
most  of  the  work  was  directly  controlled  by  Trajan  during 
his  stay  in  Rome  from  107  to  114.     We  know  only  that  he 
conferred  freely  with  Plotina,  and  that  he  left  great  power 
to  her  when  he  went  abroad.     We   can,  therefore,  only 
regard    her,    in   a  general    way,   as    contributing    to    the 
prosperity  and  progress  that  characterize  the  reign  of  her 
husband.     She  kept  Rome  tranquil  and   content,  and   no 
doubt  followed  with  close  interest  the  great  improvements 
which  Trajan  commanded.    The  neck  of  hill  which  linked 
the  Capitoline  to  the  Quirinal,  in  the  heart  of  Rome,  was 
cut  away,  and  a  fine  Forum,  or  broad  street  with  sheltered 
colonnade  on  either  side,  was  constructed  on  the  cleared 
ground  between  the  hills.      As  previous  Emperors  had 
already   made    slight    extensions  of   the  old    Forum,   the 
citizens  of  Rome  now  had,  in  the  centre  of  the  city,  a 
magnificent  corso  running  out  toward  the  great  Circus,  in 
the  porticoes  of  which  the  packed  dwellers  of  the  Suburaon 
one  side,  and  Velabrum  on  the  other,  could  lounge  and  take 
the  air  with  comfort.    Nor  was  this  a  mere  meretricious 
concession  to  their  entertainment.     Trajan  was  equally 
attentive  to  their  education.   A  beautiful  basilica,  two  public 
libraries — one  for  Greek  and  one  for  Roman  letters — and 
other  splendid  buildings  were  raised  along  the  sides  of  the 
new  Forum,  and  statues  of  marble  and  bronze  were  brought 
from  all  parts,  even  from  the  palace,  to  adorn  it. 

Other  cities  of  the  Empire  shared  in  the  generosity 
and  public  spirit  of  the  new  reign.  Harbours  were  con- 
structed for  the  increase  of  commerce,  fresh  roads  were 
flung  across  the  intervening  country,  and  many  towns 
were  enriched  with  stimulating  public  edifices.    Nor  were 


144  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

the  social  needs  of  the  Empire  less  regarded  than  the 
material.  Previous  Emperors  had  given  a  scanty  practical 
expression  to  the  doctrine  of  the  brotherhood  of  men, 
which  the  Stoic  philosophy  was  disseminating.  Trajan 
gave  a  great  extension  to  this  new  philanthropy,  as  we 
learn  from  the  inscriptions  that  have  been  found  in  the  soil 
of  Italy.  It  is  estimated  that  300,000  poor  and  orphaned 
children  were  fed  by  charity  or  Imperial  aid  in  Italy  alone. 
The  lot  of  the  slave  was  improved,  and  the  school  system  of 
the  Empire  became  better  than  any  that  has  since  appeared 
in  Europe  until  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Men  were  returning  to  the  sobriety  of  their  fathers,  and 
were  tempering  it  with  the  new  spirit  of  peace  and  mercy, 
and  a  regard  for  culture.  Morality  improved,  and  character 
became  a  qualification  for  office.  The  one  open  scandal  of 
the  long  reign — an  intrigue  of  the  Vestal  Virgins  with  three 
young  knights — was  punished  with  all  the  rigour  of  the  old 
Roman  law. 

We  must  be  content  to  know  that  Plotina  had  her 
part  in  this  noble  work  of  restoring  the  jaded  frame  of 
the  Empire,  and  refrain  from  attempting  to  measure  her 
particular  influence.  By  the  year  114  the  administration 
ran  so  smoothly,  and  the  Western  world  was  so  settled, 
that  Trajan  turned  his  attention  to  the  East.  The  Parthians 
had  been  interfering  in  the  affairs  of  the  Ethiopians,  who 
were  vassals  of  Rome,  and  Trajan  saw  in  this  a  pretext 
of  establishing  more  strongly,  if  not  enlarging,  the  eastern 
frontier  of  the  Empire.  He  had  never  been  in  the  East, 
and  the  deep  attraction  of  its  ancient  cities  and  decadent 
mysticism  gave  a  cultural  interest  to  his  expedition.  He 
took  with  him  Plotina  and  Matidia,  his  niece.  Marciana 
seems  to  have  died  before  this  time,  and  Hadrian  had 
married  Sabina,  the  daughter  of  Matidia.  Hadrian,  and 
probably  his  wife,  accompanied  them. 

The  path  to  the  East  for  the  Roman  lay  through  Athens, 
where  Plotina  and  her  companions  would  survey  the 
decaying  splendour    of   the   Greek  civilization  in  which 

they  had  long  been  interested.     Envoys  from  the  Parthians 

w 


PLOTINA  145 

met  Trajan  there,  and  tried  to  disarm  him,  but  he  dis- 
missed them,  and  pushed  on  to  the  field  in  which  he  trusted 
to  win  fresh  laurels.  They  reached  Antioch  at  the  end 
of  the  year,  and  had,  during  their  stay  in  that  metropolis 
of  Oriental  vice  and  luxury,  a  novel  experience.  A  great 
earthquake  shook  the  city,  and  even  the  house  in  which 
the  Emperor  lodged.  He  was  forced  to  make  his  escape 
by  the  window.  The  accounts  of  their  later  movements 
are  meagre,  and  we  can  only  imagine  Plotina  passing 
with  wonder  through  the  strange  spectacles  of  western 
Asia.  During  the  spring  and  summer  an  indecisive 
campaign  was  waged  against  the  Parthians,  and  Trajan 
returned  to  Antioch  for  the  winter.  In  the  spring  of  the 
year  116  the  Emperor  set  out  again  for  Mesopotamia.  He 
passed  down  the  Euphrates,  took  the  Parthian  capital, 
sailed  on  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  even  directed  a  longing 
eye  over  the  ocean  in  the  direction  of  India.  The  spirit 
of  Alexander  breathed  in  him  as  he  trod  this  theatre 
of  the  historic  conquerors,  but  the  burden  of  age  and  an 
increasing  infirmity  put  a  reluctant  limit  to  his  ambition. 
He  had,  in  fact,  passed  the  range  of  his  powers,  and 
distended  too  far  the  frontier  of  the  Empire.  In  the 
following  year  he  became  weaker,  and  the  Eastern  tribes 
advanced  with  spirit.  Leaving  the  task  to  his  generals, 
the  Emperor  turned  towards  Italy. 

How  far  Plotina  had  accompanied  her  husband  on 
these  remote  journeys  we  are  not  informed.  It  would 
not  be  surprising,  or  out  of  harmony  with  a  general  custom 
of  the  time,  if  she  covered  the  whole,  or  the  greater  part, 
of  the  territory  with  him.  However  that  may  be,  we 
find  her  with  Trajan  and  Hadrian  at  Antioch  once  more  in 
the  course  of  the  year  117.  Trajan  was  seriously  ill,  and 
had  to  abandon  all  hope  of  settling  the  Eastern  question. 
He  maintained  the  troops  at  the  frontier,  left  Hadrian  at 
Antioch  as  legate  of  the  East,  and  slowly  and  sadly  moved 
towards  Europe.  His  tall  frame  was  bent  with  age,  his 
hair  was  white,  his  limbs  made  heavy  with  dropsy  and 
numbed  with  incipient  paralysis.  When  they  arrived  at 
10 


146  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Selinus,  a  small  town  on  a  precipitous  rock  of  the  Cilician 
coast,  only  a  few  hundred  miles  from  Edessa,  his  illness 
increased,  and  he  died,  in  the  month  of  August,  117,  in 
the  sixty-third  year  of  his  age. 

The  exact  truth  about  Plotina's  conduct  at  the  time 
of  Trajan's  death  will  never  be  known,  but  an  impartial 
analysis  of  the  statements  made  by  the  chroniclers  cannot 
discover  any  clear  ground  for  dissatisfaction.  Dio,  whose 
authority  on  this  point  is  claimed  to  be  considerable,  since 
his  father  was  then  governor  of  the  province  of  Cilicia, 
first  insinuates  a  suggestion  of  poison,  in  the  usual  form 
of  an  unsubstantial  rumour,  and  then  insists  that  Plotina 
forged  a  letter  in  Trajan's  name,  nominating  Hadrian 
his  successor  in  the  Imperial  power.  The  writer  of  the 
sketch  of  Hadrian  in  the  "  Historia  Augusta,"  Spartianus, 
carries  the  legend  further.  He  describes  how  Plotina  put 
a  confidant  in  the  bed  of  the  dead  Emperor,  drew  the 
clothes  about  him,  and  directed  him  to  murmur,  in  a 
feeble  voice,  to  the  assembled  officials  that  he  wished 
Hadrian  to  succeed  him.  This  second  version  is  wholly 
negligible.  It  comes  only  from  an  anonymous  writer  of 
the  fourth  century  who  excites  our  distrust  at  all  times 
by  his  extravagant  and  unsupported  statements.  The 
latest  commentators  on  his  work  warn  us  that  his  aim 
is  prurient  and  his  method  devoid  of  scruple. 

The  authority  of  Dio,  on  the  other  hand,  must  not  be 
exaggerated.  His  father  might  purvey  gossip  to  him,  like 
any  other  Greek  or  Roman,  and  his  story  of  the  forged 
letter — or  forged  signature  to  a  letter — might  easily  be 
a  piece  of  local  gossip.  Plotina  was  evidently  anxious 
to  secure  the  succession  for  Hadrian,  and  one  may  well 
admit  that  she  concealed  her  husband's  death  until  Hadrian 
arrived  at  Selinus.  That  concealment  would  easily  give 
rise  to  conjectures.  Serviez  naturally  forces  on  his  readers 
the  more  romantic  version,  but  more  sober  writers  acquit 
Plotina  of  anything  more  than  a  formal  use  of  Trajan's 
name  after  his  death. 

The  suggestion  of  poison  is  frivolous.    Trajan  had  been 


PLOTINA  147 

ailing  for  months,  and  his  assiduous  travelling  in  a  climate 
so  different  from  that  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed  all 
his  life  must  have  worn  him  out.  He  arrived  in  Asia 
Minor  in  the  sweltering  and  dangerous  month  of  August, 
and  a  touch  of  the  enteric  fever  which  so  commonly  over- 
came the  European  in  the  insanitary  East  of  the  time  put 
an  end  to  his  life.  Plotina  had  for  some  time  urged  him  to 
nominate  Hadrian  as  his  successor.  We  must  not  hastily 
infer  from  his  reluctance  that  he  thought  Hadrian  unfit  to 
succeed  him.  He  had  just  left  him  in  a  position  of  the 
gravest  responsibility,  and  must  have  appreciated  what  a 
great  historian  calls  Hadrian's  "vast  and  active  genius." 
But  he  may  not  have  deemed  it  proper  for  him  to  dictate 
to  the  Senate  how  they  should  exercise  their  power  of 
choice.  What  actually  occurred  is  certainly  obscure.  A 
letter  was  dispatched  to  the  Senate,  after  Trajan's  death, 
in  which  Hadrian  was  nominated,  and  Dio  says  that  the 
signature  was  put  to  this  letter  by  Plotina.  One  would 
imagine  that  such  a  deception,  as  Dio  represents  it  to 
be,  would  easily  be  detected  and  resented  by  Hadrian's 
powerful  enemies  in  the  Senate.  It  is  probable  that,  as 
Merivale  supposes,  the  letter  was  really  dictated  by  Trajan, 
and  the  signing  of  it  by  Plotina  was  only  formal.  We  may 
admit  Dio's  narrative  of  facts,  yet  believe  that  the  Empress 
was  merely  carrying  out  Trajan's  will. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  reason  to  quarrel  with, 
or  put  a  base  interpretation  on,  her  zeal  for  the  succession 
of  Hadrian.  We  shall  see  how  well  he  maintained  the 
sound  work  of  Trajan.  He  was  at  once  summoned  to 
Selinus,  to  consult  with  Plotina  and  with  the  elderly 
Senator  Attianus,  who  had  been  his  guardian  together 
with  Trajan,  and  had  been  as  zealous  as  the  Empress 
in  urging  his  advancement.  They  decided  that  Hadrian 
must  return  to  his  post  at  Antioch,  and  Plotina  set  out 
for  Rome  with  the  ashes  of  her  husband  in  a  golden  urn. 
The  last  resting-place  of  Trajan  was  under  the  magnificent 
column  which  still  bears  witness  in  Rome  to  his  many 
victories,  and  for  centuries  afterwards  the  most  flattering 


148  THE   EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

compliment  that  the  Senators  could  pay  to  an  Emperor 
was  to  cry  that  he  was  "more  fortunate  than  Augustus, 
and  better  than  Trajan." 

Plotina  lived  at  Rome  for  four  years  after  the  death  of 
her  husband.  The  first  year  was,  as  we  shall  see,  one  of 
great  anxiety  and  trial.  There  was  much  discontent  at 
Hadrian's  accession,  and  before  long  his  reign  was  stained 
by  the  execution  of  four  of  the  most  distinguished  nobles. 
Matidia  died  in  the  following  year,  and  it  was  known  to 
all  Rome  that  Sabina  lived  unhappily  with  Hadrian.  It  is 
said  that  Plotina  continued  to  have  an  active  share  in  the 
administration  of  the  Empire,  though  she  must  now  have 
been  in,  or  near,  her  seventh  decade  of  life.  Dio  places 
her  death  in  the  year  121.  Hadrian  was  in  Gaul  at  the 
time,  and  the  luxuriance  of  his  mourning  gave  encourage- 
ment to  the  libellers.  He  went  into  deep  mourning, 
breathed  a  passionate  grief  in  a  beautiful  poem,  and  ordered 
the  building  of  a  temple  for  the  cult  of  the  divinity  which 
he  conferred  on  her.  In  Nimes,  where  he  was  staying  at 
the  time  when  her  death  was  announced,  he  raised  the 
superb  mausoleum  which  kept  her  name  for  ages  in  the 
mind  of  Europe. 

It  is  both  pleasant  and  legitimate  to  believe  that  there 
was  neither  rhetorical  display  nor  the  memory  of  an 
irregular  love  in  the  princely  mourning  of  Hadrian  over 
the  death  of  his  patroness.  Apart  from  his  own  indebted- 
ness to  her,  the  world  owed  her  much.  She  had  been  at 
least  a  most  worthy  and  helpful  companion  of  a  great 
Emperor,  a  type  of  womanhood  to  which  the  eyes  of 
Roman  matrons  might  happily  be  directed.  On  the  day 
when  her  inanimate  frame  was  borne  from  the  palace  to 
the  funeral  pile,  men  could  repeat  that  she  had  in  truth 
left  that  home  of  temptation  as  she  had  entered  it.  The 
saner  and  sunnier  life  of  the  vast  Empire  was,  in  part,  her 
monument.* 

'  Duruy  quotes  Aurelius  Victor  ("Epitome,"  xiv)  as  saying:  "  It  is  impos- 
sible to  say  how  much  Plotina  enhanced  the  glory  of  Trajan."  The  passage 
is  really  found  in  c.  xxxix  of  the  "  Epitome." 


CHAPTER  IX 

SABINA,  THE  WIFE  OF  HADRIAN 

WE  are  already  familiar  with  the  extraction  and  the 
training  of  the  next  Empress  of  Rome.  Sabina 
was  the  elder  daughter  of  Trajan's  niece  Matidia, 
and  came  of  the  sound  and  sober  stock  of  the  Spanish 
provincials.  We  first  meet  her  in  the  little  settlement  on 
the  Rhine,  where  she  lived  with  her  widowed  mother  and 
grandmother,  in  Trajan's  house,  during  the  reign  of  Galba 
and  Nerva.  She  was  in  her  early  teens,  a  grave  and 
modest  child,  easily  directed  by  the  three  sedate  ladies  of 
the  house.  Very  shortly  after  the  accession  of  Trajan,  a 
charming  young  officer  burst  into  the  camp  to  offer  his 
congratulations.  He  had  a  romantic  story  to  tell,  how  a 
jealous  brother-in-law  had  bribed  his  servants  to  break 
down  the  chariot  on  the  way,  and  he  had  crossed  the  great 
forests  on  foot  to  greet  his  guardian  and  cousin.  It  was 
the  future  Emperor,  and  her  future  husband,  Hadrian. 

The  wicked  brother-in-law,  Ursus  Servianus,  presently 
arrived,  and  put  before  Trajan  a  proof  of  his  ward's 
enormities  in  the  shape  of  a  list  of  his  debts.  But  Trajan 
was  charmed  with  the  handsome  and  brilliant  young 
officer,  kept  him  in  his  suite,  and  took  him  to  Rome  when 
he  went  up  to  occupy  the  throne ;  and  we  saw  that  he 
became  a  great  favourite  of  the  Imperial  ladies.  His 
father  had  been  a  first  cousin  of  Trajan,  but  Hadrian  lost 
him  at  the  age  of  ten,  and  was  committed  to  the  guardian- 
ship of  Trajan  and  Attianus.  The  finest  masters  of  Rome 
directed  his  studies  in  letters,  art,  rhetoric,  and  philosophy, 

149 


150  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

and  he  became  a  most  accomplished  and  learned,  as  well 
as,  by  hunting  and  exercise,  a  graceful  and  energetic  youth. 
The  "  Historia  Augusta  "  expressly  says  that  Trajan  "  loved 
him,"  and  he  advanced  quickly,  and  enjoyed  the  brilliant 
literary  society  of  the  palace  and  the  capital.  About  two 
years  after  their  coming  to  Rome  he  married  Sabina.  One 
chronicler  represents  him  as  spending  large  sums  of  money 
to  win  her,  and  so  incurring  the  annoyance  of  Trajan ; 
another  states  that  he  turned  with  disdain  from  her  plain 
propriety,  and  had  to  be  persuaded  by  Plotina  that  the 
marriage  was  to  his  interest.  It  was,  at  all  events,  clearly 
a  manage  de  convenance,  and  was  destined  to  have  the 
customary  sequel. 

Sabina  would  be  in  her  twelfth  or  thirteenth  year  at  the 
time,  and  we  can  imagine  the  mating  of  the  prim  little 
maiden  with  the  brilliant  scholar  and  promising  officer  of 
twenty-four.  For  many  years  she  is  no  more  than  the 
silent  shadow  of  her  husband,  and  we  can  only  dimly 
follow  her  movements  as  she  accompanies  him  about  the 
Empire.  Whether  she  accompanied  him  on  the  Dacian 
wars  between  loi  and  io6,  or,  as  seems  more  probable, 
remained  at  Rome  to  develop  a  taste  for  letters  in  the 
palace  of  Plotina,  we  cannot  confidently  say,  but  it  is 
recorded  that  she  did  lean  to  culture.  Hadrian  was  back 
in  io6,  high  in  the  favour  of  Trajan,  who  gave  him  the 
diamond  ring  he  had  received  from  Nerva.  He  could  both 
fight  and  carouse  to  the  Emperor's  satisfaction.  He  was 
made  praetor  on  his  return,  and  gave  brilliant  games — at 
Trajan's  expense — in  which  11,000  beasts  were  slain.  In 
quick  succession  he  became  legate  in  Lower  Pannonia 
and  consul.  The  aged  statesman  Sura  told  him  that 
he  was  destined  for  the  throne;  the  rumour  went  about 
Rome,  and  the  nobles,  at  first  disdainful  of  his  provincial 
accent  and  jealous  of  his  progress,  began  to  respect 
him.  He,  and  most  probably  Sabina,  accompanied  Trajan 
on  his  fatal  journey  to  the  East,  and  we  have  seen  what 
happened. 

In  the  year  117,  in  about  the  thirtieth  year  of  her  age, 


SABINA,  THE   WIFE  OF  HADRIAN  151 

Sabina  found  herself  Empress  of  Rome,  but  the  elevation 
seems  to  have  brought  her  little  happiness  and  impelled 
her  to  no  exertion.  There  is  little  room  for  doubt  that, 
either  in  the  camp  or  in  the  tainted  atmosphere  of  Rome 
or  Antioch,  Hadrian  had  contracted  the  vice  which  prevailed 
among  Roman  men.  There  is  another  reason,  however, 
why  Sabina  remains  in  obscurity  in  the  chronicles. 
Hadrian's  biographer,  Gregorovius,  has  relieved  him  of  the 
common  charge  that  he  relinquished  the  conquests  of 
Trajan,  and  neglected  Imperial  interests,  in  a  less  enlight- 
ened zeal  for  art  and  letters.  Hadrian  had  a  clear, 
commendable,  and  vast  policy.  He  believed  that  the 
Empire  would  only  be  weakened  by  extension,  and  that  it 
was  a  saner  ambition  to  enrich  and  uplift  the  life  within  its 
frontiers  than  to  enlarge  them.  His  life  was  spent  in  a 
magnificent  realization  of  this  design  ;  and  it  was  a  design 
so  far  beyond  the  modest  range  of  Sabina's  political 
intelligence  that  she  was  forced  to  remain  a  spectator  of 
his  work.  She  seems,  very  naturally,  to  have  carped  at  his 
one  frailty,  which  so  nearly  concerned  her,  and  Hadrian 
replied  peevishly,  and  merely  conveyed  her  as  an  un- 
interested encumbrance  in  the  remarkable  voyages  which 
fill  the  twenty  years  of  his  reign. 

Hadrian  was  then  in  his  fortieth  year,  a  tall,  very 
handsome  and  athletic  man,  of  brilliant  conversation,  un- 
tiring energy,  and  great  public  spirit.  The  most  artistic 
of  all  Roman  Emperors,  one  of  the  most  artistic  and 
cultured  of  monarchs,  indeed,  he  could  nevertheless  endure 
the  plain  bread-and-cheese  of  the  soldier  for  weeks  to- 
gether; and  he  so  much  discarded  his  horse  and  his 
chariot,  for  their  encouragement,  that  a  chronicler  de- 
scribes him  as  having  covered  the  entire  Empire  on  foot. 
By  diplomacy  and  by  bribes,  which  we  may  or  may  not 
admire,  he  secured  an  almost  unbroken  peace  for  the 
Empire  during  two  decades;  and  the  works  of  use  or 
adornment  with  which  he  enriched  every  province  of  the 
Empire  during  those  twenty  years  make  up  an  almost 
fabulous  achievement.     Much  as  we  must  sympathize  with 


152  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

the  Empress  in  her  resentment  of  the  practice  into  which 
his  Greek-Oriental  tastes  betrayed  him,  we  cannot  deny 
that  Hadrian  was  a  great  and  beneficent  ruler.  The 
sketch  of  his  life  in  that  prurient  work,  the  "  Historia 
Augusta  " — the  chronique  scandaleuse  of  the  middle  Empire 
— is  a  monumental,  if  unconscious,  panegyric. 

The  biographer  of  the  Empresses  cannot  escape  the 
conclusion  that  Sabina  was  not  a  fitting  mate  for  so 
versatile  and  constructive  a  genius.  Her  superiority  in 
decency  is  enormously  outweighed  by  Hadrian's  magnifi- 
cent work  for  the  Empire.  The  natural  alienation  of  the 
two  in  sentiment  would  not  encourage  her  to  co-operate 
in  his  work,  in  the  fashion  set  by  Livia  and  Plotina, 
but  one  feels  that  this  is  not  the  sole  explanation,  and 
that  her  mediocre  faculty  was  entirely  absorbed  in  a 
small  pursuit  of  culture.  It  is  not  impossible  that,  if 
there  had  been  cordial  co-operation  between  them,  she 
would  have  saved  Hadrian  from  the  only  serious  stains 
on  the  record  of  his  reign. 

The  first  of  these  occurred  in  the  year  following  his 
accession.  Bringing  to  the  Imperial  task  a  fresh  and 
vigorous  mind,  untainted  by  mere  military  ambition — 
though  he  was  an  excellent  soldier — Hadrian  glanced 
round  the  Empire,  and  saw  that  peace  must  first  be 
established  on  its  frontiers.  The  East  was  aflame  with 
revolt,  the  African  and  German  boundaries  were  disturbed, 
and  trouble  was  announced  from  Britain.  He  at  once 
sacrificed  the  conquests  beyond  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates, 
appeased  the  Jews  and  the  other  peoples  of  the  East,  and 
passed  to  Lower  Germany  to  still  the  restlessness  of  the 
northern  frontier.  There  had  been  some  discontent  among 
the  older  soldiers  and  statesmen  of  Rome  at  his  being 
forced  on  them.  From  Judaea  he  had  imprudently  sent 
one  of  Trajan's  most  fiery  commanders,  the  Moorish  prince 
Lusius  Quietus,  back  in  some  disgrace  to  the  capital,  and 
this  man  and  others  formed  a  party  of  opposition.  When 
they  saw  that  he  was  sacrificing  Trajan's  conquests  and 
reversing  his  policy,  and  especially  when  he  proposed  to 


SABINA,  THE   WIFE  OF  HADRIAN  153 

evacuate  Dacia  also,  they  entered,  it  is  said,  into  something 
of  the  nature  of  a  conspiracy. 

How  far  Hadrian  was  really  responsible  for  the 
execution  of  the  leaders  of  this  party  we  cannot  say,  and 
his  emphatic  denial  of  responsibility  is  entitled  to  con- 
sideration. We  know  that,  when  the  aged  statesman 
Attianus  wrote  to  urge  him  that  the  Roman  prefect  and 
other  distinguished  malcontents  ought  to  be  removed, 
he  refused  to  take  any  action.  The  Senate  now  announced 
that  a  plot  to  assassinate  Hadrian  had  been  detected,  and 
it  put  to  death,  without  trial,  four  men  of  consular  rank, 
Nigrinus,  Palma,  Celsus,  and  Lusius  Quietus.  A  sullen 
murmur  passed  through  the  city,  and  Hadrian  hastily 
composed  his  affairs  on  the  Danube  and  went  to  Rome. 
He  resolutely  denied  that  he  had  consented  to  the  execu- 
tions, and  the  question  remains  open. 

With  this  public  resentment  in  view,  Hadrian  at  once 
lavished  the  most  princely  favours  on  Rome,  and  swore 
that  he  would  never  execute  a  Senator  without  the  consent 
of  his  order.  He  remitted  debts  to  the  treasury  to  the 
extent  of  ;^9,ooo,ooo,  extended  the  existing  charities  to 
orphans  and  widows,  provided  magnificent  spectacles  for 
the  people,  and  made  a  sacrifice  of  Attianus,  by  deposing 
him,  to  the  anger  of  the  malcontents.  When  the  Senate 
offered  him  the  triumph  which  had  been  due  to  Trajan 
for  the  Eastern  victories,  he  refused  it,  and  placed  a  wax 
image  of  the  dead  Emperor  in  the  triumphal  chariot.  The 
citizens  of  Rome  may  have  been  less  impressed  when 
he  showed  a  zeal  for  public  morals,  and  forbade  the  mixed 
bathing  that  had  hitherto  been  permitted ;  but  he  suc- 
ceeded, by  two  years  of  untiring  public  service,  in  removing 
the  earlier  resentment.  That  he  wished  to  kill  Attianus, 
and  did  actually  execute  the  architect  Apollodorus,  are 
idle  legends.  Serviez  seriously  reproduces  the  story  that 
the  architect  had  snubbed  him — telling  him  to  "go  and 
paint  his  pumpkins  " — when  he  had  made  a  suggestion 
to  him  in  earlier  years,  and  that  Hadrian  avenged  himself 
when  he  came  to  the  throne.  The  truth  is  that  the  "  Historia 


154  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Augusta  "  describes  him  in  consultation  with  Apollodorus 
on  some  building  project  ten  years  later. 

The  details  of  this  vast  activity  of  Hadrian's  do  not 
concern  us,  as  Sabina  seems  to  have  taken  no  part  in  it. 
The  busts  we  have  of  her  seem  to  show  a  cold  and  irre- 
sponsive temper,  as  if  the  Empress  were  contemplating 
disdainfully  the  figure  of  the  beautiful  Oriental  youth  on 
whom  Hadrian's  affection  became  concentrated.  There  is 
distinction  in  the  smooth  lines  of  the  face  and  in  the  lofty 
forehead,  and  there  is  a  proud  strength  that  might  very 
well  make  her  "  morose  and  harsh,"  as  Hadrian  described 
her,  when  he  gave  her  such  palpable  cause  for  resentment. 
Her  mother  died  in  119.  In  a  florid  oration  Hadrian 
praised  her  beauty  of  person  and  character,  but  the  death 
would  not  be  likely  to  improve  the  relations  of  the  Imperial 
spouses. 

In  the  year  120  or  121  Hadrian  set  out  on  the  first  of 
the  long  journeys  which  fill  the  rest  of  his  career,  and 
Sabina  made  the  tour  of  the  world  with  him.  Had  their 
intercourse  been  more  pleasant,  the  lot  of  Sabina  during 
the  next  fifteen  years  would  have  been  one  of  great  fortune. 
They  passed  together  over  the  whole  Roman  world  from 
Eboracum  (York)  to  Arabia  and  Egypt,  surveying  the 
ruined  Empires  of  the  past  and  the  young  nations  of  the 
future  in  the  light  of  whatever  culture  the  age  afforded ; 
and  so  beneficent  was  their  passage  that  myriads  of  in- 
scriptions and  coins,  bearing  such  legends  as  "  Golden 
Age  "  and  "  Restorer  of  the  Earth,"  handed  on  to  posterity 
the  memory  of  the  great  works  which  Hadrian  everywhere 
inaugurated.  Through  Gaul — probably  through  the  flour- 
ishing Greek  colony  of  Massilia  (Marseilles),  the  solid  and 
cultured  city  of  Lugdunum  (Lyons),  and  the  little  trading 
centre,  Lutetia,  that  would  one  day  be  brilliant  Paris — ^ 
they  passed  on  to  Germany,  and  traversed  the  boundless 
forests  that  hid  the  soil  of  a  great  modern  nation.  No 
glittering  pomp  of  guards  surrounded  the  Emperor.  Bare- 
headed alike  in  the  snows  of  Germany  and  under  the 
sun  of  Syria,  marching  commonly  on  foot  in  the  dress  of 


SABINA 

BUST   IN   THE    BRITISH   MUSEUM 


SABINA,  THE   WIFE   OF   HADRIAN  155 

a  soldier,  and  living  on  soldier's  fare,  he  restored  the  rigid 
discipline  of  the  legions  wherever  he  went.  Bridges, 
aqueducts,  roads,  temples,  and  colonnaded  squares  sprang 
up  in  the  rear  of  his  march.  His  staff  was  a  band  of 
engineers  and  architects. 

*  In  this  novel  and  admirable  company  Sabina  made  the 
round  of  Gaul  and  Germany,  and  crossed  over  to  Britain 
in  the  Imperial  galleys.  From  the  little  colony  of  Lon- 
dinium  (London),  which  had  been  destroyed  sixty  years 
before,  and  was  now  restored  by  Hadrian,  they  passed 
along  the  solid  Roman  road  to  Eboracum  (York),  the  last 
great  station  from  which  civilization  looked  out  on  the 
turbulent  waves  of  Scottish  barbarism.  It  was  then  that 
Hadrian  ordered  the  building  of  the  great  wall,  to  keep 
off  the  Caledonian  marauders,  of  which  the  traces  still 
exist.  Sabina  may  have  remained  in  York  while  Hadrian 
surveyed  the  rough  territory  to  the  north,  and  it  seems 
to  have  been  on  the  Emperor's  return  that  an  episode 
occurred  which  must  have  greatly  embittered  her. 

One  of  Hadrian's  secretaries  was  the  historian  Suetonius, 
whose  work  on  the  Emperors  has  provided  us  with  much 
material.  With  him  and  the  cultivated  commander  of  the 
Praetorian  Guards  Sabina  maintained  a  close  friendship, 
and  Hadrian  made  a  grievance  of  it.  So  closely  did  he 
pry  into  the  affairs  of  his  friends  that  the  rumour  was  set 
about  that  he  had  many  mistresses  among  their  wives. 
It  was  reported  to  him  that  Suetonius  and  Septicius  Clarus 
"  were  behaving  with  more  familiarity  than  the  dignity  of 
the  Imperial  house  permitted,"  as  Spartianus  puts  it,  and 
they  were  dismissed.  There  is  no  suggestion  of  grave 
irregularity  on  her  part.  The  idea  of  divorcing  Sabina^ 
which  Hadrian  is  said  to  have  discussed,  is  expressly 
connected  with  what  he  called  her  "moroseness  and 
asperity  " ;  and  we  can  well  believe  that  her  asperity  took 
the  form  of  bitter  complaints  about  his  own  conduct. 
Nothing  further  was  done,  and,  though  we  may  regard 
with  reserve  the  statement  that  Sabina  deliberately  pre- 
vented herself  from  having  a  child,  lest  she  should  put  a 


156  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

new  monster  on  the  throne,  the  Imperial  couple  continued 
their  uncongenial  companionship.^  Some  of  the  coins 
which  were  struck  in  commemoration  of  their  passage 
ventured  to  bear  the  legend,  "  Concordia  Augusta  " — struck 
in  honour  of  the  harmony  of  the  Imperial  household. 

From  Britain  they  returned  to  Gaul,  where  Hadrian 
excited  comment  by  the  opulence  of  his  mourning  over 
the  death  of  Plotina.  They  then  passed  to  Spain,  where 
Roman  civilization  had  taken  deep  root,  and  on  to  the 
land  of  the  Moors.  The  colonies  which  Rome  had  planted 
along  the  strip  of  territory  descending  from  the  mountains 
to  the  sea  had  been  devastated  by  the  barbarians,  and  the 
frontier  had  been  obliterated.  Hadrian  drove  back  the 
tribes,  restored  the  towns,  and  returned,  after  an  absence 
of  more  than  a  year,  to  Rome.  The  city  was  tranquil,  and 
the  building  of  the  great  villa  which  still,  in  its  ruins, 
excites  the  amazement  of  the  visitor  at  Tivoli,  was  pro- 
ceeding. After  a  year  or  two  of  peaceful  administration, 
seeing  that  the  west,  north,  and  south  of  the  Empire  were 
secure  and  prospering,  Hadrian  turned  his  face  towards 
the  east. 

We  need  not  follow  him  in  this  journey  to  Greece  and 
Asia  Minor,  since  it  is  not  clear  whether  Sabina  accom- 
panied him,  but  it  had  a  sequel  of  melancholy  interest  to 
the  Empress.  From  the  cities  of  Greece  he  made  his  way 
along  the  coast  of  the  Black  Sea  to  the  region  of  the 
Parthians,  where  he  again  restored  peace,  and  back 
through  Asia  Minor  and  the  islands  to  Rome.  Two  or 
three  years  had  been  occupied  in  this  journey,  and 
Hadrian  had  become  less  Roman  in  taste  than^ver. 
He  came  home  surrounded  by  Greeks,  and  with  a  great 

'  Gregorovius  points  out  that  the  incident  may  have  occurred  at  Rome, 
and  that  we  have  no  positive  proof  that  Sabina  accompanied  him  on  this 
journey.  But  the  narrative  of  Spartianus  seems  to  imply  that  she  was  in 
Britain,  and  we  shall  see  that  she  accompanied  him  on  his  longer  journey 
to  the  East.  Duruy  and  other  writers  hold  that  the  officers  were  dismissed 
for  lack,  not  excess,  of  respect  for  Sabina,  but  the  word  "  familiarius," 
coupled  with  a  threat  of  divorce,  seems  to  demand  the  interpretation  I  have 
put  on  it. 


SABINA,   THE   WIFE   OF  HADRIAN  157 

zeal  for  Greek  and  Eastern  institutions.  In  particular  he 
brought  in  his  train  a  beautiful  Bithynian  youth  whose 
name  is  from  that  time  inseparably  connected  with  his. 
Hadrian's  passion  for  Antinous  is  the  chief  stain  on  his 
character,  and  was  probably  the  chief  ground  of  Sabina's 
resentment.  The  Emperor  had  visited  Bithynia,  and  pre- 
sumably met  the  youth  there.  Every  traveller  among 
rude  and  healthy  nations  is  aware  that  such  practices  are 
by  no  means  confined  to  decadent  civilizations,  nor  does 
the  student  of  contemporary  morals  see  in  them  anything 
distinctive  of  the  life  of  ancient  Syria,  Greece,  or  Rome. 
Nevertheless,  the  remarkable  beauty  of  Antinous,  which  is 
familiar  to  us  in  many  a  statue,  and  the  wanton  openness 
of  his  association  with  the  Emperor,  attracted  general 
attention  and  greatly  embittered  Sabina. 

When,  therefore,  she  set  out  with  Hadrian,  at  the  end 
of  128  or  the  beginning  of  129,  for  a  fresh  and  more  exten- 
sive tour  in  the  East,  her  enjoyment  must  have  been 
heavily  clouded  by  the  daily  and  hourly  presence  of  the 
Emperor's  companions.  The  young  Adonis  was  not  the 
only  source  of  offence  in  Hadrian's  suite.  Closer  still  to 
Hadrian  was  a  young  Roman  noble  of  the  most  effemi- 
nate charm  and  the  most  dissolute  life.  Lucius  Ceionius 
Commodus  was  later  taken  into  Imperial  partnership  by 
Hadrian,  and,  although  he  did  not  live  to  attain  supreme 
power,  his  descendants  will  more  than  once  enter  and 
disturb  our  story  of  the  Empresses.  Spartianus  ascribes 
to  him  a  "regal  beauty"  of  face  and  person,  a  manner 
of  great  charm,  a  witty  and  sparkling  conversation,  and 
an  utter  depravity  of  morals.  He  had  won  the  regard  of 
Hadrian,  not  so  much  by  the  famous  new  dish  which  he 
had  invented  for  the  epicures  of  Rome — a  boar,  ham, 
pheasant,  and  peacock  pie — as  by  the  sensuous  charm  of 
his  person  and  the  exotic  sensuality  of  his  life.  He  would 
lie,  washed  in  exquisite  Persian  ointments,  on  a  couch 
strewn  with  roses,  with  a  coverlet  of  lilies  drawn  over 
himself  and  his  companion.  Such  ways  were  entirely 
foreign  to  the  nature  of  Hadrian,  but  his  robust  vigour 


158  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

was  singularly  united  with  a  fine  artistic  sensibility  and 
a  love  of  the  softer  east,  which  led  him  into  many 
inconsistencies. 

Sabina  had  for  companion  a  Greek  poetess,  Julia 
Fadilla,  of  such  virtue  and  attainments  that  a  statue  was 
somewhere  raised  to  honour  her  as  a  pattern  of  integrity. 
The  incongruous  party,  with  its  conflicting  groups  of  virtue 
and  vice — a  fitting  symbol  of  the  unhappy  union  of  West 
and  East — crossed  the  sea  to  Athens,  and  then  visited 
Corinth,  Eleusis,  and  the  other  surviving  cities  of  Greece. 
The  frame  of  that  superb  civilization  still  gleamed,  almost 
intact,  on  the  soil  of  Hellas,  though  the  soul  of  Greece  had 
departed.  It  was  as  if  one  gazed  on  the  smooth  white 
corpse  of  a  beautiful  woman.  Groups  of  sophists  still 
disputed  in  the  gardens  or  under  the  shady  colonnades ; 
but  they  were  puny  mimics  of  Socrates,  Zeno,  and 
Epicurus.  Politicians  still  babbled  in  the  Agora ;  but 
they  blessed  the  hand  of  Rome  that  had  closed  brutally 
on  the  throat  of  their  fair  country.  The  Acropolis  still 
shone  in  its  panoply  of  Parian  marble,  and  Hadrian  had 
restored  the  harbour  and  repaired  many  of  the  ravages 
of  time  and  violence.  He  regretted  the  greed  of  his  fore- 
runners, and  sought  to  restore  the  ancient  spirit.  But 
the  poor  revival  of  art  and  letters  and  religion,  which  he 
succeeded  in  effecting,  was  only  the  last  flicker  of  the 
vitality  of  Greece. 

They  crossed  the  sea  to  Ephesus,  which  at  that  time 
rivalled  Antioch  and  Alexandria  as  a  metropolis  ^  the 
decaying  civilizations  of  the  East.  Its  great  Temple  of 
Diana,  a  teeming  store  of  art  and  treasure,  drew  men 
from  all  parts,  while  priests  of  all  religions  mingled  in  its 
streets  with  panders  to  all  vices  and  ministers  to  every 
form  of  art  and  luxury.  Smyrna,  another  flourishing  city 
of  Asia  Minor,  attracted  them  next,  with  its  magnificent 
assemblage  of  temples,  colonnades,  baths,  and  theatres, 
and  they  passed  on  to  Sardis  and  the  other  cities  of  that 
fascinating  and  repellent  Greek-Oriental  region,  where 
new  mysticism  ran  like  veins  of  gold  in  the  old  volcanic 


SABINA,  THE  WIFE   OF  HADRIAN  159 

deposits.  The  winter  was  spent  in  the  luxury  of  Ephesus 
and  Smyrna,  and  with  the  spring  they  traversed  the 
successive  provinces  of  Asia  Minor,  admiring  and  restoring 
the  remains  of  Greek  and  Persian  grandeur.  Through 
Syria,  where  famous  Antioch  detained  them  for  a  time, 
they  went  on,  probably,  to  the  ruined  cities  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon,  and  returned  to  Heliopolis,  Damascus,  and  Palmyra. 
In  Palestine  they  found  the  survivors  of  the  scattered 
Jewish  nation  living  in  great  poverty  and  dejection  among 
the  ruins  of  their  cities,  or  still  scrutinizing  the  prophets 
and  looking  for  the  Messiah  in  the  larger  communities  on 
the  coast.  On  the  site  of  Jerusalem,  where  a  few  broken 
towers  gave  a  melancholy  reminder  of  their  former  pros- 
perity, Hadrian  ordered  that  a  new  Roman  colony  should 
be  established. 

From  Judaea  they  moved  to  Arabia,  and  then  to  Egypt. 
Alexandria  was  then  the  second  city  of  the  world  in 
importance,  the  first  in  interest.  All  the  exhausted  streams 
of  the  older  civilizations  had  poured  into  it.  Never  before 
or  since  was  there  so  cosmopolitan  a  population,  such  a 
gathering  of  old  vices  and  new  moralities,  dead  religions 
and  fresh  religions,  cults  six  thousand  years  old  and  the 
latest  gospels  of  Judaea  and  Persia.  Its  harbour  still  held 
the  ships  of  every  port  in  the  Mediterranean,  its  Serapeum, 
Museum,  and  Caesareum  sheltered  the  art  and  culture  of 
the  world,  and  its  deafening  streets  rang  with  the  tongues 
of  the  world.  But  the  soul  of  Egypt,  too,  was  dead,  and 
the  Imperial  party  moved  up  the  Nile  to  admire  the 
surviving  relics  of  its  past.  No  doubt  priests  and  learned 
men  from  Alexandria  would  attend  as  interpreters.  They 
wandered  in  Memphis,  which  the  sand  of  the  desert  was 
beginning  to  bury,  passed  through  Heliopolis,  and  reached 
Besa,  where  they  experienced  the  great  sensation  of  the 
tour.  The  beautiful  Bithynian  youth  was  drowned  in  the 
Nile,  and  Sabina  had  to  regard  with  disdain  the  womanly 
tears  and  the  extravagant  mourning  of  the  Emperor.  It 
is  not  clear  to  this  day  whether  the  death  was  accidental  or 
voluntary.     Hadrian,  of  course,  said  that  it  was  accidental ; 


i6o  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

but  a  rumour  lingers  in  the  chronicles  that  the  Emperor, 
in  his  new  zeal  for  Oriental  superstition,  had  learned  that 
his  life  was  doomed  unless  some  loved  being  was  sacrificed 
for  him,  and  Antinous  offered  himself  Hadrian  has  taken 
the  secret  with  him,  but  the  temples  and  statues  he  raised 
all  over  the  Empire  kept  the  memory  of  the  pretty  youth 
fresh  for  centuries. 

This  occurred  about  the  month  of  October.    The  dates 
of  these  journeys  of  Hadrian  are  much  disputed,  but  a 
trivial  detail  has  determined  this  part  of  the  tour.    They 
went  on  to  Thebes,  and,  in  accordance  with  custom,  cut 
their  names  and  the  date  in  the  great  statue  of  Memnon. 
They  probably  pushed  on  as  far  as   Philae,  to  see  the 
temple  of  Isis,  but  we  find  them  back  in  Syria  at  the 
end  of  the  year,  or  the  beginning  of  132,  and  soon  after- 
wards in  Rome.    The  great  villa  had  now  been  completed 
at  Tivoli,  and  we  must  assume  that  Sabina  lived   there 
during  the  three  or  four  years  that  remained  for   her. 
They  were  years  of  continued  melancholy.     Hadrian  was 
sobered,  but  soured.    The  Jews  had  disturbed  his  cherished 
peace  by  rebelling,  on  account  of  his  design  to  cover  the 
site  of  their  holy  city  with  a  Roman  colony,  and  he  had 
ruthlessly  destroyed  what  remained   of  their  cities,  and 
erased  the  name  of  Jerusalem  by  calling  the  new  town 
iElia  Capitolina.      Illness   began   to   enfeeble    his    frame, 
and  he  brooded  darkly  over  the  question  of  a  successor, 
which  men  were  discussing.     He  passed  in  heavy  dej^ion 
through   the   lovely  gardens  and   marble  temples   of  his 
villa,  still   mourning  the  loss   of  Antinous.     An   obelisk 
has    been  found  there  with  the  inscription  that  it  was 
raised   to  the  youth   by  Hadrian   and    Sabina — a    fiction 
that  must  have  angered  the   Empress,   if   it  were  done 
before  her  death.     But  she  did  not  live  to  see  the  darker 
gloom  of  his  closing  years.     She  died  in,  or  about,  the 
year    136,    "not   without    a    rumour    of    poison,"    says 
Spartianus;  the  rumour  is  not  worth  considering.    She 
had  been  entitled  "Augusta"  by  the  Senate  in   127,  but 
Hadrian    refused    her    the    divine    honours    which    were 


SABINA,  THE   WIFE  OF  HADRIAN  i6i 

usually  bestowed  on  dead  Empresses.  They  were  awarded 
by  his  successor. 

The  busts  of  Sabina  which  we  have  suggest  just  such  a 
personality  as  we  have  gathered  from  the  meagre  references 
to  her  in  the  chronicles.  She  was  a  woman  of  smooth  and 
regular  features  and  fine  person,  without  beauty  or  charm. 
Her  face  gives  an  impression  of  intellect,  virtue,  and  silent 
suffering.  She  is  the  kind  of  woman  who  would  neither 
overlook  the  vice  of  her  husband  nor  actively  resent  it, 
or  assert  herself  in  any  way ;  the  kind  of  woman  to 
retreat  in  disdain  to  her  books.  That  she  was  "  treated 
as  a  slave "  by  Hadrian,  as  Aurelius  Victor  says,  we  may 
decline  to  believe,  and  regard  the  statement  as  a  popular 
exaggeration ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  can  we  agree  with 
Gregorovius  that  a  letter  in  which  Hadrian  invites  his 
mother  to  dine  with  him  on  his  birthday,  and  says  that 
Sabina  has  gone  into  the  country,  shows  their  "  mutual 
dislike."  Duruy  quotes  this  very  letter  in  disproof  of 
the  belief  that  they  were  estranged,  and  points  out  that 
it  goes  on  to  say  that  Sabina  had  "sent  her  share  for  the 
family  dinner."  The  French  historian  believes  that  the 
legend,  "  Concordia  Augusta,"  on  some  of  the  medals  of 
the  time  expressed  a  fact.  We  cannot,  however,  imagine 
Sabina  resigning  herself  to  her  husband's  passion  for 
youths,  and  the  few  authentic  details  left  us  about  her 
relations  with  Hadrian  generally  indicate  a  mutual  aversion. 
As  an  Empress,  she  was  a  nonentity;  as  a  woman,  an 
admirable  blend  of  old-world  sobriety  and  new-world 
culture. 

Hadrian  survived  her  for  two  unhappy  years.  The 
whole  Empire  was  covered  with  monuments  of  his  public 
service,  the  coinage  of  every  province  proclaimed  his 
beneficence,  the  slave,  the  widow,  and  the  orphan  gratefully 
told  of  his  magnanimity.  But  the  illness  and  depression  of 
his  last  year  permitted  him  to  commit  a  crime,  and,  so 
accustomed  was  the  new  generation  to  good  conduct  in  its 
rulers,  the  recollection  of  his  great  deeds  was  almost 
obliterated.  To  the  astonishment  of  all,  and  the  indigna- 
II 


i62  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

tion  of  the  thoughtful,  Hadrian  announced  that  he  had 
chosen  as  Caesar  his  dissolute  and  decadent  companion, 
Lucius  Verus.  His  brother-in-law  Servianus,  now  an  old 
man  of  ninety,  and  the  grandson  of  Servianus,  a  youth 
of  nineteen,  seem  to  have  been  among  the  murmurers,  and, 
on  trivial  pretexts,  they  were  put  to  death.  These  cruel 
murders  brought  a  deep  shadow  over  Hadrian's  last  year, 
but  a  last  opportunity  was  given  him  to  repair  his  action. 
Lucius  Verus,  worn  and  consumptive  from  debauch,  died, 
and  Hadrian  now  made  choice  of  the  most  worthy  man  in 
the  Senate,  Titus  Antoninus ;  adding,  however,  in  his  quaint 
way  of  mingling  good  and  evil,  that  he  must  in  turn  adopt 
the  son  of  Lucius  Verus  and  young  Marcus  Aurelius,  a 
Sybarite  and  a  Stoic,  two  antithetic  types  of  Roman  life. 
He  went  down  to  Baiae,  suffering  acutely  from  dropsy. 
The  pain  and  weariness  were  so  great  that  he  tried  to 
secure  poison  or  a  sword,  but  Antoninus  prudently 
guarded  and  nursed  him.  He  died  in  the  year  138,  "done 
to  death  by  physicians,"  he  ironically  said.  In  his  last 
days  he  composed  some  slight  verses,  which  1  may 
translate : 

Little  soul,  so  tired  and  still, 

Guest  of  this  decaying  flesh, 

Whither,  now,  will  thy  flight  be  ? 

Pale  and  cold  and  reft  of  speech, 

Never  more  to  utter  joke.  4* 

It  was  the  note  of  the  time-spirit,  which  was  so  strangely 
incarnated  in  Hadrian.  He  united  in  his  person  all  the 
contradictions  that  were  at  strife  in  his  era  of  change — 
asceticism  and  sensuality,  public  spirit  and  selfish  sensi- 
bility. Stoicism  and  Cyrenaicism.  He  needed  a  stronger 
Empress.  But  the  better  spirit  prevailed  in  him  at  the  end, 
and  the  Stoics  came  to  the  throne. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   WIVES   OF  THE   STOICS 

ON  the  twenty-fifth  of  February,  in  the  year  138, 
Hadrian  had  summoned  the  Senators  to  the  palace. 
Verus  was  dead,  and  the  whole  world  wondered  on 
whom  the  erratic  fancy  of  the  ailing  Emperor  would  rest 
next.  Among  the  Senators  was  a  distinguished,  able,  and 
amiable  statesman  and  commander,  Titus  Aurelius  Fulvus 
Boionius  Arrius  Antoninus,  whose  great  merit  had — as  the 
long  series  of  names  implies — been  richly  rewarded  by 
older  relatives.  He  had  been  much  consulted  by  Hadrian 
in  his  last  years,  and  was  respected  by  all.  To  the  great 
relief  of  the  Senate  the  wavering  finger  of  the  Emperor  fell 
on  this  man,  and  he  was  acclaimed  Caesar.  He  attended 
Hadrian  devotedly,  prolonged  the  useless  life  which 
lingered  between  him  and  the  throne,  and — it  was  rumoured 
— saved  many  a  noble  head  from  execution  in  the  last 
frenzies  of  Hadrian.  Early  in  July  that  great  traveller  set 
out  on  his  last  journey,  and  Aurelius  Antoninus — a  name 
to  which  the  Senate  soon  added  the  appellation  of  Pius — 
ascended  the  throne. 

The  new  Empress  of  Rome  was  Annia  Galeria  Faustina, 
a  matron  in  her  thirty-fourth  year,  of  an  ancient  and  dis- 
tinguished Italian  family.  It  is  of  some  interest  to  regard 
the  extraction  of  Faustina.  Through  her  the  Imperial 
throne  is  about  to  pass  once  more  to  one  of  its  most  ignoble 
occupants,  and  Rome  will  sink  rapidly  from  the  reign  of 
Marcus  Aurelius  to  the  riot  of  Commodus.  The  two 
opposing  tendencies  of  Roman  life  meet  in  her  family,  and 

163 


i64  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

the  Stoic  succumbs  to  the  Epicurean — or,  rather,  to  the 
Sybaritic  or  Cyrenaic,  for  the  gospel  of  Epicurus  was  one 
of  dignity  and  sobriety.  Rome  might  have  said,  in  the 
later  language  of  Goethe,  as  he  depicted  himself  passing 
through  a  similar  phase  : 

Zwei  Seelen  wohnen,  ach,  in  meiner  Brust. 

One  soul  leaned  to  sloth,  sensual  and  selfish  indulgence : 
one,  with  larger  horizon,  was  for  temperance,  vigour,  and 
Imperial  duty.  The  curious  feature  of  this  critical  stage  in 
the  fortunes  of  Rome  is  that  the  two  tendencies  are 
developed  within  the  same  family,  and  the  Stoic  yields  to 
the  Sybarite.  Annia  Galeria  Faustina  was  born  of  the  same 
parents  as  the  father  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  was  reared 
in  the  same  atmosphere  of  old  Roman  virtue,  or  manliness, 
as  the  word  signifies.  The  great-grandfather  of  Marcus 
Aurelius  was  Annius  Verus,  a  Senator  of  great  merit  and 
of  Spanish  extraction.  His  son  Annius  Verus  was  twice 
consul,  and  both  his  sons  in  turn — the  father  and  uncle  of 
Marcus  Aurelius — were  promoted  to  the  consulate.  Every- 
thing we  know  of  the  family  suggests  a  fine  and  sober 
patrician  type,  and  confirms  the  beautiful  picture  of  it  given 
us  by  Marcus  Aurelius  in  his  '*  Meditations." 

The  one  element  of  possible  weakness  in  the  anftstry  of 
the  Faustinas  and  of  Commodus  is  in  the  mother  of  Annia 
Galeria  Faustina.  Annius  Verus  had  married  Rupilia 
Faustina.  Her  family  is  obscure,  and,  though  one  must 
hesitate  to  trace  to  her  this  strain  of  weakness  and  vice  on 
such  slender  grounds,  one  is  disposed  to  believe  that  she 
was  married  for  her  beauty,  and  brought  into  that  strong 
family  the  tainted  germ  which  ripened  in  more  than  one  of 
her  descendants.  It  may,  however,  very  well  be  that  the 
strength  of  the  stock  was  decaying — Marcus  Aurelius  him- 
self was  delicate — and  its  later  descendants  succumbed  to 
the  evil  influences  about  them,  A  genealogical  table  will 
show  how  the  fate  of  Rome  hung  on  this  family  for  more 
than  a  generation  : — 


FAUSTINA  THE  ELDER 

BUST   IN   THE   LOUVRE 


THE  WIVES  OF  THE  STOICS  165 

Annius  Verus  (twice  consul) 
and  Rupilia  Faustina 

I  \  i 

Annius  Libo  Annius  Verus  (consul)  Annia  Galeria  Faustina 

(consul)  (marries  Domitia  Calvilla)     (marries  Antoninus  Pius) 


Annia  Cornificia  Marcus  Aurelius  Annia  Faustina 

(marries  Annia  Faustina) 

\ 

Commodus 


Faustina  had  inherited  her  mother's  beauty,  and  was 
reared  in  a  very  conscientious  home.  It  was  the  home  in 
which  Marcus  Aurelius  learned  his  first  lessons  in  virtue, 
as  his  father  died  early,  and  all  the  chroniclers  speak  of  it 
with  great  respect.  We  know  very  little  about  her,  how- 
ever, until  she  becomes  Empress,  and,  as  she  died  three 
years  afterwards,  we  have  not  much  concern  with  her. 
She  is  believed  to  have  married  somewhat  late  for  a  Roman 
girl,  in  or  about  her  sixteenth  year  (120).  Titus  Aurelius 
Antoninus  was  then  in  his  thirty-fourth  year,  a  tall,  grace- 
ful, and  handsome  man,  of  quiet  and  captivating  manners, 
good  cultivation,  fine  character,  and  a  face  of  great  dignity 
and  sweetness.  He  was  of  good  family,  and  was  advancing 
rapidly  in  the  public  service.  Shortly  after  the  marriage 
he  became  consul,  and  he  remained  in  Rome  in  one  or 
other  civic  capacity  until  128  or  129.  He  was  very  wealthy 
and  greatly  esteemed. 

One  of  the  chroniclers  has  charged  her  with  light 
behaviour,  and,  as  this  is  the  only  period  in  which  we  can 
plausibly  entertain  it,  we  may  regard  the  charge  for  a 
moment.  The  book  of  Dio's  history  for  the  reign  of 
Anioninus  Pius  is  lost,  so  that  neither  he  nor  his  com- 
mentators throw  any  light  on  Faustina.  Aurelius  Victor 
and  Eutropius  say  nothing  of  her  character.  The  one 
hostile  witness  is  "Julius  Capitolinus,"  the  anonymous 
writer  of  the  fourth  cerrtury  who  provides  the  sketch  of  the 


1 66  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

life  of  Antoninus  Pius  in  the  "  Historia  Augusta."  He 
says  (c.  3):  "Many  things  are  said  of  his  wife's  excessive 
freedom  and  looseness  of  life,  which  he  had  painfully  to 
overlook."  Serviez  enlarges  on  this  with  his  usual  license. 
But  as  he  makes  Faustina  the  sister  of  iElius  Verus,  and 
says  that  she  neglected  the  education  of  her  children,  which 
is  also  untrue,  we  may  ignore  him. 

It  is  now  more  customary  to  reject  this  charge  against 
the  elder  Faustina,  on  the  ground  that  the  single  witness  is 
a  light  anecdotist  of  the  fourth  century.  Moreover,  when 
the  tutor  Fronto  wrote  a  glowing  panegyric  of  Faustina 
after  her  death,  Antoninus  Pius  answered  that  it  was  even 
more  true  than  eloquent,  and  swore  that  he  "  would  rather 
live  with  her  at  Gyaros  [a  barren  island,  to  which  criminals 
were  deported]  than  in  a  palace  without  her."  Neverthe- 
less, we  must  leave  the  question  open.  Antoninus  Pius 
was  not  a  puritan.  When  the  Emperor  Julian  introduces 
him  before  the  gods,  in  his  charming  contest  of  the 
Emperors  for  the  highest  praise  ("  The  Caesars  "),  he  calls 
him  "  a  moderate  man,  not  indeed  in  love-affairs,  but  in  the 
administration  of  the  Empire."  Faustina  was  probably 
charming  enough  to  merit  his  sincere  lament.  But  as 
Capitolinus  mingles  truth  and  untruth  with  a  very  light 
hand,  and  the  relevant  book  of  Dio  is  wanting,  we  cannot 
decide  the  issue. 

In  the  year  128  or  129  Antoninus  was  appointed  Pro- 
consul of  Asia,  and  he  and  Faustina  went  to  Smyrna.  The 
elder  of  their  two  daughters  died  about  the  same  time.  An 
amusing  incident  in  connexion  with  their  arrival  is 
narrated  by  Philostratus  in  his  "  Lives  of  the  Sophists."  The 
Proconsul  at  once  occupied  the  finest  house  in  Smyrna, 
the  home  of  the  teacher  Polemo,  who  was  absent.  Polemo 
was  the  idol  of  Smyrna,  and  was  proportionately  conceited. 
He  drew  youths  from  all  parts  to  his  school,  and  had  won 
much  favour  from  Hadrian  for  the  city.  He  travelled  in  a 
superb  Phrygian  chariot,  and  his  mules  had  silver  trap- 
pings ;  and  when  some  grumblers  had  hinted  that  he  had 
diverted  to  his  own  pocket  some  of  Hadrian's  subsidies,  he 


/ 
THE   WIVES  OF  THE  STOICS  167 

had  pompously  written   to   the   Emperor :    **  Polemo   has 
given  me  an  account  of  money  given  by  you  to  him."    This 
conceited  sophist  reached  his  house  in  the  middle  of  the 
night,  and  found  the  Proconsul  and  Faustina  abed  there. 
He  promptly  turned  them  out,  and  roundly  abused  them. 
Years  afterwards,  when   the  genial   Antoninus   was   Em- 
peror, and  Polemo  came  to  the  palace,  he  said  laughingly 
to  an  attendant :  "  See  that  Polemo  has  a  chamber  in  the 
palace,  and  that  no  one  turns  him  out."    Later  an  actor 
came  from  Smyrna  to  complain  that  Polemo,  the  autocrat, 
had  turned   him   out  of  the   theatre.     "At   what  hour?" 
asked  the  Emperor  gravely.      It  was  at  midday.     "  That  is 
nothing ;  he  turned  me  out  at  midnight,"  said  the  Emperor. 
The  amiability  and  solid  work  of  Antoninus  must  have 
won  Polemo,  as  Hadrian  is  reported  to  have  said  in  his  will 
that  it  was  he  who  advised  the  adoption  of  Antoninus.    But 
the  East  generally  so  much  appreciated  the  Proconsul  that, 
when  he  returned   to   Rome,   he   stood  very  high  in    the 
favour  of  Hadrian.     We  again  lose  sight  of  Faustina  until 
he  becomes  Emperor,  and  then  there  are  one  or  two  brief 
references  to  her  before  she  dies  in  141.     At  his  accession 
he  refused  the  greater  part  of  the  money  {aurum  coronariutn) 
which  was  due  to  him,  by  custom,  from  the  provinces,  and 
drew  very  liberally  on  his  private  fortune  for  paying  the 
great    expenses    entailed.      Faustina   naturally  demurred. 
"  Foolish  woman,"  he  is  said  to  have  answered,  "  when  we 
obtained   the    Empire  we   lost   what   we   previously  pos- 
sessed."   The  only  other  reference  is  contained  in  a  letter 
of  the  younger  Faustina  to   Marcus  Aurelius :   "  In   the 
defection  of  Celsus  my  mother  exhorted  Antoninus  to  be 
concerned  first  about  his  own  family."     We  know  nothing 
of  this  revolt.  Apparently  Antoninus,  like  Marcus  Aurelius, 
was  disposed  to  be  dangerously  lenient.     The  final  refer- 
ence to  Faustina  is  that  she  died  in  the  third  year  of  his 
reign  (141),  and  was  deeply  mourned  by  him.     Nominated 
"  Augusta  "  in  life,  she  was  deified  at  death,  and  Antoninus 
built  in  her  honour  the  beautiful  temple  of  which  traces  are 
still  seen  in   Rome.     He  also  instituted  in  her  honour  a 


i68  THE   EMPRESSES   OF   ROME 

fresh  charity  for  orphans,  the  "  Puellae  Faustinianae,"  and 
ordered  that  gold  and  silver  statues  of  her  should  be  borne 
in  the  processions. 

This  sincere  tribute  of  the  Emperor  tells  at  least  of  a 
great  affection  and  esteem,  but  the  literary  references  to 
Faustina  are  too  meagre  and  disputable  to  bring  her  clearly 
before  us.  The  busts  that  are  believed  to  represent  her 
do  not,  unfortunately,  assist  us  much.  In  the  Capitoline 
Museum  at  Rome  is  one  that  may  depict  her  in  her 
twenties  or  earlier.  It  has  a  round  and  tranquil  face,  not 
devoid  of  strength,  but  more  directly  suggesting  an  even 
and  sober  character.  Another  bust,  in  the  Vatican 
Museum,  shows  the  same  features  at  a  later  age;  but  a 
third,  in  the  same  Museum,  has  not  so  pleasant  an  expres- 
sion. The  oval  face  is  hard  and  querulous.  The  loose 
lips  droop  at  the  ends;  the  large  eyes,  prominent  cheek- 
bones, and  strong  chin  have  an  expression  that  is  very 
far  from  tender  or  spiritual.  The  bust  that  is  attributed 
to  her  in  the  British  Museum  is  between  the  two.  The 
elder  Faustina  remains  in  obscurity,  and  we  pass  to  her 
more  notorious  daughter  and  successor. 

For  twenty  years  after  the  death  of  Faustina  there 
was  no  Empress  of  Rome.  Antoninus,  who  was  in  his 
fifty-fifth  year,  refused  to  marry  again,  and  took  a  concu- 
bine— an  arrangement  recognized  in  '  Roman  law  and 
practice,  in  which  marriage  had  several  degrees.  It  was 
an  era  of  general  peace  and  great  prosperity.  The  group 
of  Stoic  lawyers  that  the  Emperor  gathered  about  him 
humanely  moderated  the  rigour  of  the  laws,  medical 
service  was  supplied  to  the  poor  in  the  towns,  the  school- 
system  was  further  endowed,  and  works  of  mercy  con- 
tinued to  multiply.  The  armies  usually  rested — and,  it 
is  to  be  feared,  rusted — the  treasury  was  again  filled,  the 
Empire  was  happy  and  prosperous.  In  the  year  i6i  the 
cheerful,  benevolent  Antoninus  passed  away,  and  the  two 
men  whom  Hadrian  had  compelled  him  to  adopt  came  to 
their  joint  reign.  With  them  are  introduced  two  new 
Empresses  of  no  little  interest, 


THE   WIVES  OF  THE   STOICS  169 

The  two  boys  whom  Hadrian  had  lightly  designated  as 
the  heirs  to  the  throne  after  Antoninus  were  Annius  Verus, 
or  Verissimus,  as  Hadrian  genially  called  him  on  account 
of  his  precocious  gravity  and  piety,  and  Lucius  Verus,  son 
of  Hadrian's  dissolute  companion.  Annius  was  a  great 
favourite  of  the  Emperor.  He  received  office  in  his  sixth 
year,  and  donned  the  philosopher's  cloak  in  his  twelfth. 
He  was  the  pet  of  his  grandfather's  palace,  but  so  serious 
in  his  Stoicism  that  his  mother  had  difficulty  in  persuading 
him  to  sleep  in  a  bed  instead  of  on  the  floor.  In  his  sixteenth 
year  Hadrian  gave  him  the  manly  toga,  and  betrothed  him 
to  the  daughter  of  Lucius  Verus.  In  his  eighteenth  year 
he  was  "  terrified  "  to  hear  that  he  had  been  chosen  for  the 
succession,  and  must  go  to  live  in  the  palace.  Then  Hadrian 
died,  and  Antoninus  adopted  him. 

Gibbon  has  greatly  praised  Antoninus  for  preferring 
the  welfare  of  the  State  to  the  interest  of  his  family  in  this 
adoption.  It  is  true  that,  as  we  know  from  coins,  Antoninus 
and  Faustina  had  had  two  sons,  as  well  as  two  daughters, 
but  they  must  have  died  before  the  year  138.  Dio  expressly 
says  that  Hadrian  ordered  Antoninus  to  adopt  the  two 
youths  "  because  he  had  no  male  children  at  the  time." 
His  boys,  like  his  elder  daughter,  must  have  died  before 
that  time;  and  indeed  we  have  no  further  mention  of  them. 
But  if  this  particular  grace  cannot  be  allowed  to  Antoninus, 
we  must  admire  his  careful  control  of  their  education  and 
his  discriminating  guidance  of  their  fortunes.  The  best 
masters  in  Rome  instructed  each  of  them,  and  it  was 
only  the  deep-rooted  difference  in  their  constitutions — the 
moral  strength  of  the  one  and  weakness  of  the  other — that 
led  them  to  diverge  so  widely.  The  vigilant  eye  of  the 
Emperor  observed  the  dissimilarity  of  promise.  He  left 
Lucius  Verus  out  of  the  way  of  promotion,  and  destined 
Marcus  for  the  great  advancement. 

No  sooner  was  Antoninus  on  the  throne  than  he 
approached  Marcus,  through  Faustina,  with  a  proposal 
of  marriage  with  his  daughter.  She  had  been  promised 
by  Hadrian  to  young  Lucius  Verus,  and  Marcus  was  to 


I70  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

marry  Ceionia.  The  Emperor  proposed  to  cancel  these 
contracts,  and  marry  the  younger  Faustina  to  the  young 
Stoic.  It  would  be  extremely  interesting  if  we  could 
penetrate  the  feelings  of  the  young  princess  at  the  time. 
The  later  busts  of  her  suggest  a  pretty,  round-faced  girl, 
probably  in  her  early  teens,  with  small  eyes  and  a  lively 
temperament.  The  grim  and  austere  young  scholar  would 
not  attract  her,  and  one  can  imagine  her  feelings  when  he 
asked  time  to  consider  whether  he  would  accept  the  hand 
of  the  Emperor's  charming  daughter.  Marcus  philosophic- 
ally weighed  the  proposal  in  his  mind  until  the  time  he 
asked  had  expired,  and  then  he  consented  to  betrothal. 
He  was  appointed  Caesar  and  consul  designate,  and  given 
the  palace  of  Tiberius  for  a  dwelling.  A  bust  that  we  have 
of  him,  in  the  Capitol  Museum,  represents  him  about  this 
time — a  face  of  singular  beauty  and  refinement  framed  in 
a  mass  of  short  curly  hair. 

Their  marriage — a  superb  ceremony — did  not  take  place 
until  about  seven  years  later  (145),  a  circumstance  which 
we  may  regard  as  a  further  philosophic  error.  During  the 
years  of  waiting,  and  during  most  of  the  reign  of  Antoninus, 
Marcus  was  absorbed  in  study.  He  was  penetrated  with 
the  aphorism  of  Plato,  that  the  State  would  be  happy  whose 
prince  was  a  philosopher.  What  the  effect  was  on  Faustina 
we  may  be  in  a  better  position  to  say  later.  Her  mother 
had  died  in  141,  her  womanhood  was  fully  born,  and  the  eye 
of  her  father  had  an  Empire  to  survey.  At  the  death  of 
Antoninus  the  throne  was  at  once  offered  to  Marcus.  In 
his  last  moments  Antoninus  had  ordered  the  golden  statue 
of  Fortune,  which  he  kept  in  his  chamber,  to  be  conveyed 
to  Marcus.  From  a  sense  of  duty  he,  unluckily  for  Rome, 
associated  Lucius  Verus  with  him  in  the  Empire.  Some- 
what delicate  himself,  he  relied  on  Verus  for  such  work 
abroad  as  was  immediately  necessary,  and  continued  to 
frequent  the  schools. 

His  peaceful  studies  were  quickly  interrupted.  Fatal 
floods  and  scarcity  of  food  disturbed  the  capital ;  the  eastern 
frontier  was  again  aflame,  and  the  German   frontier  was 


THE  WIVES  OF  THE  STOICS  171 

threatened.  Marcus  sent  Verus  to  take  command  in  the 
East,  after  betrothing  him  to  his  daughter  Lucilla,  held  off 
the  northern  barbarians  with  bribes  and  diplomacy,  and 
worked  hard  for  the  relief  of  Rome.  For  a  time  his  policy 
seemed  to  triumph.  The  Germans  were  pacified,  and  the 
eastern  peoples  repressed.  Verus,  indeed,  advanced  no 
farther  than  the  voluptuous  palaces  of  Antioch  and  the 
licentious  groves  of  Daphne.  Once  only  during  the  cam- 
paign did  he  quit  the  luxury  of  Antioch.  He  heard  that 
Marcus  was  coming  East  with  his  daughter  Lucilla,  and 
hastened  to  meet  him  otherwhere  than  in  garrulous  Antioch. 
Marcus  did  not  leave  Italy,  however,  and  Verus  wedded 
Lucilla,  and  returned  to  his  perfumed  vices.  Happily,  there 
was  in  the  East  a  Roman  general  of  the  old  stamp,  Avidius 
Cassius,  a  strong  and  blunt  man,  disdainful  of  luxury.  He 
lashed  the  debauched  troops  into  a  state  of  discipline, 
pacified  the  East,  and  let  Verus  return  to  Rome  to  enjoy  his 
triumph. 

Here  begin  the  stories  that  have  gathered  about  the 
memory  of  the  younger  Faustina,  and  have  persuaded 
many  a  writer  that,  as  one  of  the  authorities  says,  she 
became  a  second  Messalina.  If  we  are  to  believe  the 
"  Augustan  History,"  she  behaved  with  the  most  abominable 
license  throughout  her  whole  married  life.  Four  Roman 
nobles  are  specifically  named  as  notorious  lovers  of  the 
Empress,  and  she  is  charged  with  general  license.  One 
of  the  four  was  named  Tertullus,  and  it  is  said  that  one 
day,  when  Marcus  was  in  the  theatre,  an  actor  made  flagrant 
reference  to  this  liaison.  Asked  for  the  name  of  a  certain 
lover,  he  said  three  times  (ter\  •*  TuUus,  TuUus,  Tullus." 
It  is  added  that  Marcus — who  might  very  well  miss  a  point 
in  the  theatre,  as  he  read  and  wrote  letters  there — was 
quite  aware  of  the  liaison,  because  he  one  day  surprised 
Faustina  at  breakfast  with  Tertullus.  The  Empress  is 
further  charged  with  adultery  with  the  voluptuous 
colleague  of  her  husband,  and  with  wantoning  among 
actors,  gladiators,  sailors,  and  others  of  the  baser  sort. 

The  more  sober  writers  on  Faustina  have  generally 


172  THE  EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

been  unwilling  to  admit  this  debauchery.  Duruy  rejects 
the  stories  altogether,  Merivale  recommends  reserve,  and 
Renan  thinks  that  "careful  research  has  reduced  to  very 
small  proportions  the  accusations  which  scandal  was 
pleased  to  bring  against  the  wife  of  Marcus  Aurelius."  It 
seems  to  me  that  we  can  only  come  to  the  same  conclusion 
as  we  did  in  regard  to  Messalina ;  we  must  regard  par- 
ticular legends  with  reserve,  but  must  conclude  that  the 
general  opinion  of  Faustina  at  the  time,  which  the  stories 
embody,  must  have  had  a  serious  basis.  Some  of  the 
stories  put  on  record  by  Capitolinus  in  the  "  Augustan 
History  "  are  palpably  false.  One  runs  that  she  confessed 
to  Marcus  her  passion  for  a  certain  gladiator,  and  that 
Marcus  was  directed  by  the  Chaldaean  sages,  whom  he 
consulted,  to  kill  the  man  and  bathe  the  Empress  in  his 
blood.  Her  passion  was  cured,  but  her  next  child  was  the 
brutal  Commodus.  This  story  is  so  gross — I  do  not 
reproduce  all  the  details — that  the  writer  does  not  insist  on 
it,  but  he  continues  :  "  Still,  as  her  conduct  with  the  gladia- 
tors is  well  known,  Commodus  probably  was  the  son  of  a 
gladiator."  Now  the  tutor  of  the  princes,  Fronto,  remarks 
in  one  of  his  letters,  and  the  surviving  busts  bear  him  out, 
that  Commodus  had  a  striking  likeness  to  Marcus  Aurelius. 
1  may  add  that  Commodus  was  born  in  the  year  of  the 
Emperor's  accession,  when  such  conduct  is  incredible. 

Other  parts  of  the  legend  are  just  as  vulnerable.  Thus 
it  is  said  that  Faustina  poisoned  Verus  when  he  boasted 
to  his  wife  of  his  relations  with  her.  He  died  a  very 
natural  death,  as  we  shall  see  later.  On  the  other  hand, 
Dio,  who  lived  shortly  afterwards,  and  had  no  dislike  for 
scandal,  knows  nothing  whatever  about  this  looseness  on 
the  part  of  the  Empress,  and  there  is  nothing  in  Eutropius 
or  Aurelius  Victor.  The  only  other  writer  who,  in  a 
general  way,  accuses  Faustina  of  dissoluteness  is  the 
Emperor  Julian  ("  Caesars,"  c.  28).  We  are  therefore  in  a 
dilemma,  and  must  not  too  readily  speak  of  Faustina  as 
a  second  Messalina.  The  quiet  assumption  of  her  guilt 
in  Julian,  and  the  fact  that  the  stories  in  the  "Augustan 


FAUSTINA  THE    YOUNC.P^R 

MUST  (reputed)   in    THE    BRITISH    MISF.UM 


THE   WIVES  OF  THE   STOICS  173 

History "  are  professedly  taken  from  Marius  Maximus,  an 
historical  writer  not  far  removed  from  her  time,  imply  a 
very  general  belief  in  her  guilt.  In  one  place  Capitolinus 
says  (c.  23)  that  the  Emperor  "  cleared  her  by  his  letters  " 
of  the  charge  of  loose  behaviour  with  actors,  and  in  another 
represents  him  as  saying,  when  he  is  urged  to  divorce  her 
on  account  of  her  vices  :  "  If  we  send  away  the  wife,  we 
must  give  up  her  dowry,"  though  the  Empire  could  hardly 
be  called  Faustina's  dowry.  In  a  third  place,  however, 
Capitolinus  leaves  it  open  whether  Marcus  "  was  ignorant 
of,  or  ignored,"  his  wife's  misconduct.  For  many  writers, 
in  fact,  the  attitude  of  Marcus  is  decisive.  If  such  things 
had  been  done  he  must  have  known,  and,  with  such 
knowledge,  he  could  not  have  spoken  so  highly  of  his  wife 
in  his  "  Meditations,"  and  would  not  have  dared  to  set  up, 
in  her  memory,  an  altar  on  which  the  maidens  of  Rome 
should  offer  sacrifice  before  marriage. 

The  scale,  in  truth,  is  somewhat  evenly  balanced,  yet 
one  cannot  easily  conceive  that  the  heavy  charges  of 
Marius  Maximus  and  the  deliberate  verdict  of  Julian  had 
no  foundation.  Whether  from  weakness,  or  from  an  excess 
of  casuistry,  Marcus  Aurelius  lacked  decision  or  penetra- 
tion in  such  matters.  He  married  his  daughter  to  a 
profligate,  whom  he  afterwards  deified,  and  he  committed 
the  Empire  to  a  son  who  had  given  early  promise  of  vice. 
His  grave  and  ascetic  ways  probably  repelled  the  gay  and 
beautiful  woman  whom  he  had  diplomatically  married,  and 
she  seems  to  have  sought  relief.  None  of  the  busts, 
medallions,  or  coins,  which  more  or  less  convey  an  image 
of  her  to  us,  suggest  character  or  culture,  but  rather  a 
weak  control  and  a  sensuous  temper.  From  her  Corn- 
modus  derived  the  enfeebled  will  that  put  him  at  the 
mercy  of  his  more  dissolute  courtiers,  and  the  sensuality 
that  made  his  short  reign  an  indescribable  debauch.  Much 
as  we  should  like  to  relieve  Marcus  Aurelius  of  the  shame 
of  having  begotten  such  a  monster,  we  must  admit  his 
parentage,  and  cast  what  blame  there  is  on  the  mother. 

In  this  unsatisfactory  haze  we  must  leave  the  conduct- 


174  THE   EMPRESSES   OF   ROME 

of  the  Empress  during  the  years  in  which  her  husband 
wrought  for  the  safety  of  the  Empire,  bequeathed  his 
austere  reflections  to  later  ages,  or  contemplated  the 
golden  images  of  his  teachers  in  his  lararium.  The 
triumphant  return  of  Verus  was  quickly  followed  by  years 
of  gravest  anxiety.  In  the  pestilential  East  the  legions 
had  absorbed  the  germs  of  plague,  had  strewn  them  along 
their  route,  and  had  now  disseminated  them  throughout 
Rome.  Thousands  of  victims,  rich  and  poor,  succumbed 
to  the  subtle  malady.  Marcus  vainly  summoned  the 
ministers  of  every  religion  and  the  medical  men  of  all 
schools,  and  sacrificed  those  obscure  Christians  on  whom 
popular  anger  was  ever  ready  to  visit  a  calamity.  His 
trouble  increased  when  it  was  announced  that  the  fierce 
Marcomanni  of  the  north  had  burst  into  the  Empire,  and 
were  driving  the  Romans  before  them.  With  great  energy 
he  mustered  the  demoralized  legions  in  the  north,  and 
set  out  with  Verus  against  the  enemy.  In  the  middle 
of  the  war  (i68)  Verus,  who  had  repeatedly  tried  to  return 
to  the  comfort  of  the  capital,  died.  He  had  an  apoplectic 
fit  on  the  journey,  and  we  may  ignore  the  various  sug- 
gestions that  either  Lucilla,  or  Faustina,  or  Marcus  put 
an  end  to  his  useless  career. 

Marcus  continued  for  several  years  the  task  of  settling 
the  frontier  tribes.  It  seems  that  Faustina  went  with  him 
on  these  arduous  campaigns,  though  whether  we  may 
see  in  the  circumstance  any  merit  on  her  part,  or  a  device 
of  the  Emperor  to  control  her  conduct,  it  is  impossible 
to  say.  She  at  least  earned  a  title — "  Mother  of  the 
Camps  "  and  "  Mother  of  the  Legions  " — which  is  found 
on  few  coins  of  the  Empresses.  It  is  probable  that  her 
disorders  belonged  to  an  earlier  date,  before  and  in  the 
early  part  of  the  Emperor's  reign.  It  is  chiefly  at  Gaeta, 
the  pretty  bay  on  the  coast  where  many  Romans  had 
villas,  that  Capitolinus  places  her  familiarity  with  gladiators 
and  sailors.  Possibly  the  sobriety  of  her  later  years  was 
accepted  by  her  husband  as  an  expiation,  and  held  to 
justify  his  eulogy  of  her. 


THE   WIVES  OF  THE  STOICS  175 

Those  later  years  were  full  of  trouble  and  anxiety. 
Not  only  did  two  of  their  children  die,  and  their  daughter 
Lucilla  become  the  widow  of  a  notorious  profligate,  but 
the  gods  seemed  to  have  entered  upon  a  contest  with  the 
virtue  of  Marcus  Aurelius.  A  great  earthquake  shook 
the  East,  the  plague  left  a  blackened  trail  over  the  Empire 
and  infested  the  camps,  and  other  disasters  were  crowded 
into  a  few  years.  The  treasury  ran  short,  and  Marcus 
was  obliged  to  put  up  the  Imperial  treasures  at  auction 
to  obtain  funds  for  carrying  on  the  war.  His  one  con- 
solation was  that  the  Eastern  frontier  was  tranquil,  yet 
in  the  year  175  a  messenger  came  to  announce  that  his 
great  general,  Avidius  Cassius,  was  in  revolt,  and  claimed 
the  Empire. 

Verus,  who  must  have  felt  the  scorn  of  the  stronger 
man,  had  warned  Marcus  years  before  that  Cassius  was 
dangerous,  but  the  actual  revolt  is  persistently  connected 
in  the  chronicles  with  Faustina.  Cassius  had  ambition, 
and  had  only  been  prevented  by  his  father  in  earlier  years 
from  rising  against  Antoninus  Pius.  In  174  or  175,  it  is 
said  by  Dio,  he  received  a  message  from  Faustina,  pro- 
posing that,  in  the  event  of  Marcus  dying,  he  should 
marry  her,  and  occupy  the  throne.  Shortly  after  this  a 
false  message  reached  him  that  Marcus  was  dead,  and  he 
at  once  announced  to  the  legions  that  he  assumed  the 
Empire.  The  message  was  quickly  contradicted,  but 
Cassius  thought  it  too  late  to  retire,  and  he  prepared 
for  a  struggle.  Marcus  sadly  moved  towards  the  East. 
Before  he  had  gone  far,  however,  he  learned  that  the 
soldiers,  who  hated  Cassius  for  his  rigour,  had  put  him 
to  death. 

The  position  of  Faustina  is  once  more  in  grave 
ambiguity.  The  writer  on  Cassius  in  the  "  Historia 
Augusta"  gives  the  rumour  implicating  her,  but  rejects 
it.  Unfortunately,  his  rejection  is  in  this  case  no  more 
weighty  than  his  acceptance  in  others.  He  admits  that 
his  source,  Marius  Maximus,  believes  Faustina  guilty, 
and    ascribes    it    to    "a   wish   to  defame"   the   Empress. 


176  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

Except  that  the  hatred  of  Commodus  at  Rome  may  have 
for  some  time  been  extended  to  the  woman  who  had  borne 
him,  there  is  no  clear  reason  why  Maximus  should 
calumniate  Faustina.  Dio,  who  lives  very  close  to  the 
time,  gives  it  as  a  positive  fact  that  Faustina  secretly 
urged  Cassius  to  marry  her,  and  occupy  the  throne,  if 
Marcus  died.  We  may  concur  in  the  verdict  of  most  of 
the  writers  on  the  matter.  Marcus  was  ailing,  delicate, 
and  overburdened  with  work.  It  seemed  to  Faustina 
that  he  would  not  live  long,  and,  as  Commodus  was  a 
callow  and  unpromising  youth,  and  by  no  means  sure 
of  succession,  she  sought  an  arrangement  by  which  she 
should  remain  on  the  throne  if  her  husband  died. 

It  is  not  generally  felt  that  there  was  anything  gravely 
reprehensible  in  this,  but  a  secret  negotiation  of  such  a 
character  does  not  present  her  to  us  in  an  attractive  light. 
Her  subsequent  zeal  for  the  punishment  of  Cassius  and 
his  friends  is  equally  unpleasant,  even  if  we  recall  that 
she  had  no  intention  of  raising  him  against  the  Emperor 
while  he  lived.  Several  letters  which  passed  between 
Marcus  and  Faustina  have  been  preserved  in  the  "  Historia 
Augusta,"  from  Marius  Maximus,  and  there  seems  to  be 
little  ground  to  doubt  their  genuineness.  They  suggest 
that  Marcus  was  in  the  habit  of  consulting  with  Faustina 
on  matters  of  grave  importance.  "  Come  up  to  the  Alban 
Mount,"  he  writes  her,  after  telling  of  the  sedition,  "and 
by  the  favour  of  the  gods,  we  will  discuss  the  affair  in 
safety."    Faustina  replies : 

"  1  will  set  out  to-morrow  for  the  Alban  Mount,  as  you 
command,  but  I  at  once  implore  you,  if  you  love  your 
children,  to  visit  these  rebels  with  the  utmost  severity. 
The  soldiers  and  their  leaders  have  fallen  into  evil  ways, 
and  they  will  crush  us  if  we  do  not  coerce  them." 

In  another  letter  she  presses  him  again  : 

'•  My  mother  Faustina  urged  your  father  [by  adoption] 
Pius,  at  the  time  of  the  secession  of  Celsus,  to  feel  first 
for  his  own  family.  .  .  .  You  see  how  young  Commodus  is, 


THE   WIVES  OF  THE  STOICS  177 

and  our  son-in-law  Pompeianus  is  older  and  is  abroad. 
Do  not  spare  men  who  have  not  spared  you,  and  would  not 
spare  me  and  the  children  if  they  won." 

A  later  letter  of  Marcus  tells  that  he  has  read  her 
exhortation  in  his  villa  at  Formiae  (on  the  Gulf  of  Gaeta). 
By  that  time  he  has  heard  that  Cassius  is  dead,  and  he  will 
hear  of  no  further  revenge  on  his  family.  He  will  spare 
his  wife  and  children,  and  beg  the  Senate  to  be  moderate 
in  punishing  the  accomplices,  because  "there  is  nothing 
that  so  much  commends  the  Emperor  of  Rome  to  the 
nations  as  clemency."  We  know,  in  fact,  that  he  treated 
the  family  of  Cassius  with  great  generosity. 

The  Emperor  and  Empress  then  went  to  the  East  to 
complete  the  work  of  pacification.  In  the  course  of  the 
voyage,  in  a  little  village  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Taurus, 
Faustina  met  her  end  in  the  year  175.  As  a  matter  of 
course  she  was  placed  among  the  gods,  but  Marcus  was 
not  content  with  the  customary  honouring  of  her  memory. 
He  gave  the  village  the  name  of  Faustinopolis,  founded  a 
fresh  charity  with  the  title  of  "  Puellae  Faustinianae,"  and 
built  a  beautiful  temple  at  Rome,  which,  when  he  died  a 
few  years  later,  was  dedicated  in  their  joint  names  by  the 
Senate.  As  if  to  obliterate  all  the  rumours  about  her  in- 
fidelity, he  went  on  to  ask  extraordinary  honours  for  her  of 
the  Senate.  He  set  up  a  special  altar,  with  a  silver  statue 
of  her,j|i^the  temple  of  Venus,  and  directed  that  maidens 
about  to  marry  should  offer  sacrifice  on  it ;  and  he  had  a 
golden  statue  of  her  placed  on  her  seat  in  the  theatre 
whenever  he  attended  its  performances. 

Dio  gives  two  versions  of  the  death  of  Faustina  which 
were  current  in  his  time.  Some  said  that  she  died  of  gout, 
from  which  she  suffered ;  others  held  that  she  put  an  end  to 
her  life  in  fear  lest  her  complicity  with  Cassius  should  be 
discovered  by  Marcus  in  the  East.  The  second  theory  is 
superfluous.  The  natural  cause  of  death  seems  adequate 
enough,  nor  would  she  be  in  any  serious  danger  if  Marcus 
heard    that   Cassius    had    made   her    the    pretext    of   his 

13 


178  THE  EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

rebellion.  Her  chief  misdeeds  were  to  live  after  her. 
Frivolous,  and  probably  licentious,  in  her  early  married  life, 
she  seems  to  have  settled  in  sober  ways  when  she  became 
Empress,  but  we  find  no  influence  of  hers  in  the  ordering 
of  affairs.  Had  she  only  reared  healthy  children  to  succeed 
her  husband,  she  might  have  contributed  worthily  to  the 
mighty  task  of  supporting  the  shaken  Empire.  Instead, 
she  gave  to  the  Empire  Lucilla  and  Commodus,  her  two 
surviving  children,  and  it  fell  into  a  fresh  degradation. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  WIVES  OF  THE  SYBARITES 

AS  Marcus  Aurelius  and  Lucius  Verus  had  been  equal 
in  Imperial  power,  and  both  were  married,  we  have 
one  more  Empress  to  regard  before  we  pass  on  to 
the  wives  of  Commodus  ;  and  the  account  we  have  already 
given  of  Verus  will  justify  us  in  relegating  her  to  this 
distinct  chapter.  Verus  had  married  Lucilla,  the  eldest 
daughter  of  Marcus  and  Faustina;  but  the  ambiguous 
repute  of  her  mother  will  warn  us  not  to  expect  a  painful 
spectacle  of  vice  in  alliance  with  lofty  virtue.  Lucilla 
carries  a  step  further  the  unhappy  disposition  which  we 
have  suspected  in  her  grandmother,  and  more  palpabl}' 
detected  in  her  mother.  By  her  union  with  Lucius  Verus 
vice  was  once  more  decked  with  the  Imperial  purple  and 
justified  in  the  eyes  of  Rome.  We  may  briefly  consider 
Lucilla  as  Empress  before  we  follow  her  lamentable  career 
under  the  reign  of  her  brother. 

Lucilla  was  born  in  the  first  year  of  the  married  life  of 
Marcus  and  Faustina.  Marcus  was  then  a  pale  and  thin- 
blooded  scholar,  Faustina  in  the  full  warmth  and  sensuous- 
ness  of  young  womanhood,  and  it  was  not  unnatural  that 
the  child  should  inherit  the  temper  of  her  mother  without 
the  spiritual  restraint  of  her  sire.  She  was  educated  with 
the  greatest  care,  and  was  betrothed  to  Verus  in  her 
sixteenth  year.  Presumably  by  the  will  of  her  father,  and 
certainly  with  the  full  assent  of  Verus,  she  remained  two 
further  years  in  the  palace,  while  Verus  wore  out  his 
strength  in  the  dissipations  of  Antioch.     Marcus  heard  of 

179 


i8o  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

his  conduct,  and  sent  out  Lucilla  to  marry  him ;  as  if  a 
union  with  a  young  woman  of  seventeen  or  eighteen  would 
be  apt  to  have  a  sobering  influence  on  a  man  of  Verus's 
habits  and  parentage.  Verus  met  her  at  Ephesus,  married 
her  there  with  great  pomp,  and  returned  with  her  to  his 
pleasures  at  Antioch. 

They  came  to  Rome  at  the  peace  of  i66,  and  Marcus 
could  not  fail  to  learn  in  full  the  character  of  the  man  to 
whom  he  had  entrusted  his  daughter  and  half  his  power. 
The  villa  which  Verus  occupied  in  the  Clodian  Way  was 
the  most  notorious  house  of  debauch  in  Rome.  It  swarmed 
with  the  dancing-girls,  boys.  Eastern  slaves,  musicians, 
conjurors,  etc.,  that  Verus  had  brought  from  the  East. 
One  room  was  fitted  up  as  a  popular  tavern,  and  we  must 
leave  under  the  veil  of  a  dead  language  the  abominations 
that  were  perpetrated  there.  One  can  only  repeat  such 
comparatively  decent  details  as  that  Verus  would  have 
gladiators  to  fight  in  his  house  during  dinner,  and  prolong 
the  carouse  until  his  slaves  had  to  bear  away  his  stupefied 
form  on  his  couch  ;  or  that,  on  other  occasions,  he  would 
emulate  the  early  feats  of  Nero,  and  revel  at  nights  in  the 
wine-shops  and  brothels  of  the  popular  quarter.  One  night 
he  gave  a  superbly  furnished  banquet,  and  at  the  close,  in 
a  drunken  fit,  presented  to  his  guests  the  costly  plate,  and 
even  the  litters,  with  silver-harnessed  mules,  in  which  they 
were  taken  home. 

Marcus  made  several  futile  attempts  to  brace  him  by 
a  campaign  in  the  north,  and  must  have  been  sincerely 
relieved  when  he  at  last  paid,  by  a  premature  death,  the  price 
of  his  excesses.  Lucilla  had  then  been  Empress  for  eleven 
years.  As  she  is  barely  noticed  in  the  chronicles,  we  are 
left  to  imagine  the  effect  on  her  of  living  through  her  early 
womanhood  in  such  a  palace  as  that  of  Verus.  Probably 
disgust  saved  her  very  largely  from  the  taint.  Verus's 
sister  Fabia  lived  with  them,  and  was  generally  believed  to 
be  intimate  with  her  brother.  She  at  least  usurped  the 
place  of  Lucilla  in  authority,  and  the  Empress  must  have 
been  as  much  relieved  as  her  father  when  Verus  died.     He 


THE   WIVES  OF   THE   SYBARITES  i8i 

was  rumoured  to  have  been  poisoned  by  Lucilla  because 
of  his  relations  with  Fabia  ;  by  Faustina,  for  betraying  his 
relations  with  her;  and  by  Marcus,  to  rid  the  Empire  of 
his  sottishness.  But  an  apoplectic  fit  would  be  so  natural 
a  crown  to  such  a  career  that  we  can  dispense  with  so 
much  poison. 

Lucilla  was  then  married  by  Marcus  to  an  elderly  and 
worthy  Senator,  Claudius  Pompeianus.  She  and  her 
mother  strongly  resented  the  marriage,  and  demanded  a 
younger  and  more  attractive  husband ;  but  the  Emperor 
was  unusually  firm.  Unhappily,  his  firmness  was  mis- 
placed, for  the  austerity  or  age  of  Pompeianus  effected 
what  the  profligacy  of  Verus  had  failed  to  do,  and  Lucilla 
fell  into  vicious  ways.  We  may  conjecture  that  this  did 
not  happen  until  after  her  father's  death.  Marcus  had 
returned  to  the  war  against  the  Marcomanni,  and,  after 
three  years  of  great  exertion  and  sacrifice,  was  within  sight 
of  victory  when  death  carried  him  off.  He  had  not  married 
again,  in  spite  of  Fabia's  efforts  to  win  him.  In  the  fashion 
approved  even  by  philosophers,  he  took  a  concubine  to  his 
bed,  and  virtuously  refused  to  put  a  stepmother  over  his 
children.  At  his  death  a  new  Empress  comes  upon  the 
scene,  and,  as  Lucilla  still  retained  her  Imperial  dignities 
and  privileges,  we  shall  have  to  consider  them  in  an  un- 
amiable  conjunction. 

The  last  and  most  fatal  blunder  of  Marcus  Aurelius  was 
to  leave  the  Empire  in  the  very  uncertain  hands  of  his  son 
Commodus.  War  had  drained  the  treasury;  plague,  famine, 
and  sloth  had  thinned  and  weakened  the  population ;  vice 
had  again  been  enthroned  for  all  to  admire  and  imitate  ; 
the  lusty  barbarians  were  thundering  at  its  gates.  A  new 
Vespasian  or  Trajan  was  needed  to  restore  its  vigour,  if 
such  a  restoration  were  possible.  Yet  Marcus  persuaded 
himself  that  the  pretty  youth,  with  bright  eyes  and  curly 
golden  hair,  who  played  at  soldiering  in  his  suite  in 
Germany,  could  bear  this  enormous  burden.  Herodian, 
whose  history  of  the  Emperors  now  opens  for  us,  tells  us 
that  Marcus  was  really  concerned  on  the  matter  as  he  lay 


1 82  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

in  his  last  illness.  There  were  disquieting  stories  about 
the  character  of  Commodus.  It  was  said  that  in  his  twelfth 
year  he  had,  at  Centumcellae  (Civita  Vecchia),  ordered  the 
bath-attendant  to  be  thrown  into  the  furnace  because  the 
water  was  not  hot  enough.  On  another  occasion  Marcus 
had  driven  away  certain  corrupting  attendants,  but  had 
recalled  them  at  the  petulant  tears  of  his  son.  They  were 
with  him  in  Pannonia.  We  may  at  least  assume  that  even 
the  fond  eye  of  a  father  must  have  discerned  the  weakness 
of  character  which,  in  the  course  of  a  year  or  two,  would 
let  Commodus  sink  to  indescribable  depths.  Marcus, 
however,  trustful  to  the  end  in  the  sublime  truths  of  his 
philosophy,  was  content  to  summon  Commodus  to  his 
tent,  make  a  pretty  speech  to  him  in  the  presence  of 
his  counsellors,  and  hand  over  to  him  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment. 

For  a  time  Commodus  remained  in  the  camp,  and  let 
the  elders  govern.  Before  long  the  lighter  courtiers  hint 
that  it  is  more  comfortable  in  Rome,  and  he  talks  of  going. 
The  elders  frown,  and  Pompeianus  lectures  him.  He  bows 
submissively,  but  it  is  not  long  before  he  decides  to  go. 
Numbers  of  officers  discover  a  similar  call  to  the  capital, 
and  a  gay  cavalcade  sets  out.  Rome  is  enchanted,  and 
goes  out  miles  along  the  road  to  meet  Commodus,  and 
strews  flowers  and  laurel  in  his  path,  and  enthuses  over 
his  handsome  face  and  the  curly  hair  that  shines  like  gold 
in  the  sun.  It  was  the  coming  of  Caligula  and  Nero  over 
again.  The  Roman  people — quantum  mutatus  ab  illo  ! — had 
come  to  appreciate  a  pretty  face,  and  a  prospect  of  endless 
games,  immeasurably  more  than  the  security  of  the 
frontier. 

When  Commodus  had  set  out  with  his  father  for 
Germany,  he  had  been  married — "  hastily  married,"  the 
chronicle  says — to  a  lady  as  young  and  thoughtless  as 
himself.  Crispina  was  a  very  beautiful  girl,  and  of  distin- 
guished family.  Her  father,  Bruttius  Praesens,  was  a 
Senator  of  great  merit.  It  seems  that  she  accompanied 
Commodus  to  the  camp,  and  returned  with  him  to  Rome. 


THE   WIVES   OF  THE   SYBARITES  183 

In  his  train  were  the  evil  counsellors  whom  Marcus  had 
banished  and  recalled.     Their  hour  had  come. 

For  three  years  Commodus  enjoyed  the  pleasures  which 
they  provided  or  invented  for  him,  and  left  the  administra- 
tion in  the  capable  hands  of  his  father's  servants.  Possibly 
this  was  the  highest  virtue  Marcus  had  expected  of  him. 
But  the  ambition  of  his  confidants  steadily  grew,  and  a 
bitter  feud  in  the  palace  now  came  to  a  head  and  gave 
them  an  opportunity.  Crispina  and  Lucilla  were  violently 
opposed  to  each  other.  The  Imperial  title  of  Lucilla  paled 
beside  that  of  the  wife  of  the  ruling  Emperor.  The  fire 
which  had  been  borne  before  her  when  she  went  abroad 
now  passed  to  Crispina,  and  she  had  to  yield  precedence 
in  the  palace  and  the  theatre.  Crispina,  on  the  other  hand, 
resented  the  familiarity  of  Commodus  with  his  sister,  and 
would  hardly  be  ignorant  of  the  interpretation  that  was 
generally  put  on  it.  The  adherents  of  the  palace  were 
thus  divided  into  two  parties,  and  the  Empresses  fought 
for  the  monopoly  of  Commodus's  favour.  At  last  Lucilla 
despaired  of  gaining  her  end  through  Commodus,  and 
resolved  to  have  him  murdered. 

There  is  no  room  for  doubt  that  the  daughter  of 
Faustina  and  Marcus  Aurelius  was  an  abandoned  woman. 
Dio  declares  that  she  was  "  no  better  than  Commodus." 
We  may  trust  that  this  is  an  exaggeration,  but  the  other 
authorities  speak  of  the  looseness  of  her  conduct,  and 
are  emphatically  agreed  that  she  inspired  the  plot  to 
murder  her  brother.  No  one  doubts  that  her  purpose 
was  to  recover  supreme  power.  The  inferences  and  im- 
pressions we  draw  from  Imperial  portraits  are  not  very 
substantial,  but  it  is  interesting  that  the  statue  of  Lucilla, 
which  we  have,  suggests  just  the  type  of  woman  that 
the  historians  represent  her  to  have  been.  It  is  the  figure 
of  a  full-bodied  woman,  of  strong  and  imperious  temper, 
sensual  to  the  limit  of  grossness.  In  her  the  beauty  of 
her  mother,  instead  of  being  enhanced  by  the  purity  of  her 
father,  is  blighted  by  a  general  expression  of  coarseness 
and  self-assertion. 


i84  THE   EMPRESSES   OF   ROME 

Her  criminal  design  was  gradually  imparted  to  her 
lovers.  Among  these  was  a  young  noble  named  Quadratus, 
whom  she  soon  fired  with  a  sense  of  her  grievances, 
and  a  conspiracy  was  framed.  The  actual  assassination 
was  undertaken  by  her  stepson,  Claudius  Pompeianus. 
Herodian  says  that  his  name  was  Quintianus,  and  he  may 
have  had  this  name  in  addition.  Dio  gives  a  confused  and 
contradictory  account — he  describes  Pompeianus  as  married 
to  Lucilla's  daughter,  whereas  Lucilla  was  married  to  his 
father,  and  he  says  that  she  was  intimate  with  him,  yet 
hated  him  and  wished  to  destroy  him — but,  as  he  lived 
in  Rome  at  the  time,  we  must  accept  the  substance  of 
his  story.  The  young  Senator  Pompeianus  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  Commodus,  and  only  an  infatuation  for  Lucilla 
could  have  drawn  him  into  the  plot.  He  spoiled  it,  and 
ruined  the  conspirators,  by  his  melodramatic  display.  As 
Commodus  entered  the  amphitheatre,  he  rushed  upon 
him  with  a  drawn  sword.  But  he  announced  his  purpose 
by  crying  out :  "  The  Senate  sends  thee  this  sword,"  and 
the,  guards  arrested  him. 

The  plot  gave  Commodus  an  opportunity  to  make  a 
bloody  clearance  of  those  who  hampered  his  plans,  and 
caused  him  to  regard  the  Senate  with  dark  suspicion. 
The  male  conspirators  were  executed,  and  Lucilla  was 
banished  to  Capreae.  But  Crispina  had  no  triumph  by 
the  removal  of  her  rival.  She  had  herself  been  tainted  in 
that  atmosphere  of  vice,  and  was  detected  in  one  of  her 
liaisons  by  Commodus.  She  was  banished  to  Capreae,  and 
there  both  she  and  Lucilla  were  put  to  death. 

The  conspiracy  took  place  in  the  year  182,  the  third 
year  of  Commodus's  reign.  The  remaining  ten  years  of 
his  life  it  would  be  more  agreeable  to  leave  in  the  un- 
translatable language  of  the  chroniclers,  but  he  virtually 
shared  his  throne  with  a  woman  of  a  singular  and  in- 
teresting type,  and  we  must  include  her  in  the  gallery 
of  wives  of  the  Emperors.  Among  the  property  of  the 
wealthy  young  conspirator,  Quadratus,  which  was  at  once 
confiscated,  was  a  very  handsome  and  engaging  concubine 


LUCILLA 

aUST    IN     rllK    NATIONAL    MUSRUM,    KOMK 


THE   WIVES  OF  THE  SYBARITES  185 

of  the  name  of  Marcia.  The  concubinatus  was,  as  I  have 
said,  a  legal  and  recognized  union  in  Rome,  and  we  must 
not  regard  these  women,  who  enter  our  chronicle  in  that 
capacity,  in  quite  the  same  light  as  the  mistresses  of  later 
Christian  princes.  They  were  sometimes  of  moderately 
good  family,  though  they  seem  generally  to  have  belonged 
to  the  class  of  emancipated  slaves,  and  were  included  in  the 
man's  property.  Marcia  was  of  the  latter  class.  Probably 
an  orphan  at  an  early  age,  she  was  brought  up  by  a 
eunuch,  and  sold  by  him  to  Quadratus.  At  the  dispersal 
of  his  property,  or  even  during  his  life,  she  attracted  the 
notice  of  Commodus,  and  was  transferred  to  the  populous 
harem  of  his  three  hundred  concubines. 

A  few  years  later  (185)  an  event  occurred  that  greatly 
increased  her  growing  power  over  the  Emperor.  The  chief 
favourite  of  Commodus  was  a  low-born  and  despicable 
courtier  named  Perennis,  who  encouraged  the  Emperor  to 
pursue  his  morbid  sensual  impulses,  while  he  himself 
accumulated  wealth  and  power.  He  flattered  and  indulged 
every  fancy  of  his  besotted  master,  and  controlled  all  the 
resources  of  the  State  in  his  own  interest.  He  was  com- 
mander of  the  guards,  and  seems  to  have  at  length  conceived 
an  ambition  to  displace  Commodus.  One  day,  when  Com- 
modus presided  at  the  games,  which  he  very  liberally 
provided,  before  an  immense  crowd,  a  mild-looking  man — 
said  to  be  a  philosopher — rushed  into  the  centre  of  the 
stage  and  roared  out  a  warning  to  the  Emperor  that 
Perennis  was  acquiring  wealth  and  aiming  at  the  throne. 
The  prefect  had  him  burned  alive,  and  escaped  the  Em- 
peror's suspicion ;  but  the  end  was  nearer  than  he  expected. 
A  regiment  of  fifteen  hundred  men  from  the  legions  of 
Britain  marched  into  Rome,  demanded  the  head  of  Perennis, 
and  forced  Commodus  to  recognize  and  punish  the  faults  of 
his  minister. 

From  that  time  Marcia  occupies  the  place  of  prima  inter 
pares  in  the  harem  of  Commodus.  A  good  deal  of  re- 
search has  been  expended  on  this  leading  concubine  of  the 
Emperor,  because  there  was  a  tradition  in  early  Christian 


i86  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

literature  that  she  favoured  and  protected,  if  she  did  not 
herself  belong  to,  the  new  religion.^  It  was  said  that  she 
sent  the  eunuch,  who  had  reared  her,  to  liberate  the 
repressed  Christians  of  Sardinia,  and  the  peace  which  they 
enjoyed  at  Rome  during  the  reign  of  Commodus  is  attri- 
buted to  her  influence.  But  if  Marcia  had  ever  belonged 
to  the  austere  sect  of  the  early  Christians,  we  must,  for  its 
credit,  entirely  dissociate  her  from  it  in  her  Imperial  days. 
She  seems  to  have  been  to  the  brutal  Commodus  what 
Caesonia  had  been  to  the  equally  licentious  Caligula.  She 
dressed  willingly  as  an  Amazon,  and  is  actually  represented 
on  the  coins,  with  Commodus,  in  the  helmet  of  a  female 
warrior.  If  we  may  put  any  trust  in  that  meagre  portrait 
of  her,  she  seems  to  have  been  of  much  the  same  type  as 
Caesonia :  a  handsome,  strong,  vulgar  woman,  owing  her 
influence  to  her  masculine  robustness. 

For  seven  years  she  occupied,  without  a  quarrel,  the 
chief  place  in  a  palace  in  which  all  the  orgies  of  Caligula, 
Nero,  and  Verus  were  concentrated.  At  her  persuasion 
Commodus  changed  the  name  of  Rome  to  "  the  Colony 
of  Commodus."  One  might  almost  suspect  her  of  genial 
irony  in  thus  removing  the  venerable  name  from  the  Im- 
perial city  during  the  years  when  it  was  degraded  by 
Commodus.  Evil  as  the  practices  of  Caligula  and  Nero  had 
been,  they  were  surpassed  by  the  insanities  and  obscenities 
of  the  son  of  Marcus  Aurelius.  We  must  leave  the  veil 
over  the  life  that  was  witnessed  in  the  palace  during  those 
ten  years ;  but  the  crimes  of  Commodus  were  not  confined 
to  the  wild  indulgence  of  his  unbridled  appetites.  The 
company  of  gladiators  and  the  daily  pleasure  of  killing 
degraded  him  to  the  character  of  a  mere  butcher.  He 
forced  the  priests  of  orgiastic  Eastern  cults  to  perform  on 
themselves  the  mutilations  which  their  ritual  described ; 
he  beat  them  with  the  emblem  of  Anubis  which  he  carried 
in  their  processions.  On  one  occasion  he  had  all  the 
citizens  of  Rome  with  some  infirmity  of  the  feet  gathered 
in  one  place,  and  more  or  less  dressed  as  dragons.  Then 
•  See  Dr.  Bassani's  little  work,  "Commodo  e  Marcia." 


THE   WIVES  OF  THE   SYBARITES  187 

the  Roman  Hercules — as  Commodus  loved  to  be  called — 
fell  upon  them  with  a  club,  and  killed  numbers  of  them. 
This  and  other  stories  of  his  indescribable  lust  and  cruelty 
are  told  by  an  historian  who  saw  Commodus  daily. 

In  the  year  189  Marcia  obtained  even  greater  power 
over  her  insane  lover.  The  place  of  Perennis  had  been 
at  once  occupied  by  another  of  the  Emperor's  despicable 
courtiers,  Cleander,  a  Phrygian  slave  who  had  risen,  by 
base  means,  to  be  the  first  minister  of  the  Empire.  Like 
his  predecessor,  he  encouraged  Commodus  to  wallow  in  his 
vices,  while  he  took  advantage  of  his  insanity  to  enrich 
himself.  The  highest  positions  in  the  State  were  sold  by 
him,  and  men  could  even  purchase  from  him  the  right  to 
take  vengeance  on  their  enemies,  or  the  privilege  not  to 
be  executed  for  their  wealth.  The  treasury  was  again 
diminishing,  and  noble  blood  poured  out  freely  to  refresh 
it.  A  great  pestilence  swept  over  Italy,  exacting  thousands 
of  victims  daily  in  Rome  alone.  A  terrible  famine  suc- 
ceeded it.  The  people,  observing  that  the  avaricious 
minister  was  endeavouring  to  make  a  corner  in  corn,  now 
broke  into  rebellion  and  pressed  to  the  palace  of  the 
Emperor. 

Commodus  was  enjoying  himself  at  the  beautiful  palace 
of  the  Quintilians  in  the  suburbs,  which  he  had  obtained 
by  murder,  when  the  crowd  surged  up  to  the  gates. 
Cleander  turned  the  cavalry  upon  the  people,  but  the 
infantry  sided  with  them,  and  they  returned  in  a  storm 
of  anger  to  the  palace.  None  of  his  ministers  dare 
approach  the  room  in  which  Commodus  wantoned  with 
his  companions,  but  his  sister  Fadilla  and  Marcia  broke 
in  with  the  news  that  his  life  was  in  danger.  Some 
writers  say  that  it  was  Fadilla  who  informed  him,  some 
that  it  was  Marcia.  We  may  suppose  that  both  of  them 
endeavoured  to  awake  him.  The  voluptuous  coward  at 
once  sacrificed  Cleander  to  the  crowd,  and  returned  to 
his  vices. 

Marcia  had  now  the  leading  influence  over  Commodus, 
and  Rome  sank  lower  and  lower.    The  butcheries  of  the 


i88  THE   EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

amphitheatre  were  his  chief  concern.  He  consorted  daily 
with  the  gladiators,  killed  vast  numbers  of  beasts  in  the 
arena,  and  even  fought  with  men  who  had  meekly  to 
submit  to  be  slain  by  him.  Numbers  of  distinguished  or 
wealthy  Romans  were  put  to  death  on  the  most  frivolous 
pretexts,  yet  the  Senators  were  compelled  to  view  and 
applaud  his  daily  slaughters  with  such  cries  as  :  "  Thou 
conquerest  the  world,  O  brave  Amazonian."  Dio,  who 
sat  among  the  Senators,  tells  us  that  one  day  Commodus 
made  a  grotesque  attempt  to  intimidate  them.  He  had 
just  killed  an  ostrich,  and  came  toward  them  with  the 
head  in  one  hand  and  the  bloody  sword  in  the  other. 
He  grinned  and  wagged  his  head,  without  saying  a  word, 
as  he  approached  them,  as  if  intimating  that  it  would 
be  their  turn  next.  Dio  says  that  his  appearance  was 
so  ludicrous  that  he  had  hastily  to  pluck  a  leaf  of  laurel, 
and  chew  it,  to  prevent  him  from  laughing.  We  nearly 
missed  the  writing  of  one  of  the  most  valuable  histories 
of  the  period. 

The  "  Golden  Age,"  as  the  Senate  was  compelled  to 
describe  this  appalling  decade,  came  to  a  close  through  a 
fresh  excess  on  the  part  of  Commodus  Pius,  as  he  was 
now  styled.  They  had  reached  the  last  day  of  the  year 
192,  and  were  preparing  for  the  great  festivities  of  the 
morrow.  Commodus  informed  Marcia  that  he  would 
spend  the  night  in  the  house  of  the  gladiators,  and  issue 
from  it  on  the  morrow  at  their  head.  He  ordered  his 
chamberlain  Eclectus  and  his  commander  of  the  guard 
Laetus  to  make  the  necessary  preparation.  Marcia  and 
the  officers  were  horrified  at  his  proposal,  and  besought 
him  to  abandon  it.  After  reading  the  disgusting  details 
of  his  career  in  the  "  Historia  Augusta " — even  if  we 
make  allowance  for  exaggeration — one  has  some  difficulty 
in  realizing  their  indignation.  Apparently,  however,  this 
proposal  to  identify  himself  so  intimately  with  the  de- 
graded caste  of  public  gladiators  was  regarded  by  them 
as  something  of  an  entirely  different  nature  from  the  filth 
and  obscenity  of  his  practices  in   the  palace,   and  they 


THE  WIVES  OF  THE  SYBARITES  i«9 

boldly  opposed  him.  He  angrily  shook  them  off,  and  put 
their  names  on  his  condemned  list.  The  "Augustan 
History,"  recalling  a  story  we  have  heard  before,  intro- 
duces an  element  of  romance  into  the  adventure.  It 
makes  Commodus  tie  the  tablet  to  his  bed,  and  go  to 
sleep,  when  the  tablet  is  playfully  removed  by  one  of  his 
jewel-decked  boys,  and  delivered  accidentally  into  the 
hands  of  Marcia. 

It  is  better  to  follow  the  version  of  Dio,  who  was  in 
Rome  at  the  time.  The  two  officers  and  Marcia,  realizing 
that  they  had  incurred  his  anger,  discussed  the  matter, 
and  decided  to  assassinate  him.  Marcia  was  directed  to 
poison  him.  She  put  the  poison  in  the  meat  he  ate,  but 
its  effect  was  spoiled  by  the  quantity  of  wine  he  had 
drunk,  and  it  caused  him  to  vomit.  He  became  suspicious 
and  threatening,  and  went  to  the  bath.  They  then  hastily 
took  into  their  confidence  his  powerful  and  athletic  bath- 
attendant,  Narcissus,  and  he  entered  and  strangled  the 
Emperor. 

One  reads  with  something  like  amazement  that  the 
successful  conspirators,  instead  of  gladly  announcing  that 
they  had  rid  Rome  of  such  a  brute  and  tyrant,  deliberated 
anxiously  how  they  should  proceed.  So  blind  was  the 
attachment  of  the  troops  to  their  paymaster,  and  of  the 
common  citizens  to  any  generous  provider  of  games,  that 
they  concealed  the  deed.  Commodus  had  himself  fought 
735  times  in  the  public  amphitheatre,  and  on  those  per- 
formances alone  had  spent  200,000,000  drachmas.  The 
temper  of  the  demoralized  people  and  soldiers  was  un- 
certain, and  they  decided  to  put  the  Empire  at  once  in 
the  hands  of  a  strong  soldier. 

In  the  romantic  story  of  the  accession  of  the  various 
Empresses  of  Rome  there  are  few  cases  so  dramatic  as 
that  which  introduces  the  next  Empress  in  the  series. 
There  was  living  in  Rome  at  the  time  an  experienced 
commander,  in  his  sixtieth  year,  of  the  name  of  Pertinax. 
His  father  had  kept  a  kind  of  tavern  in  a  village  of 
Liguria.     The    son    had    obtained    some    education,    and 


190  THE   EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

rapidly  climbed  the  ladder  of  promotion.  He  had  married 
Flavia  Titiana,  the  accomplished  daughter  of  a  very 
wealthy  and  distinguished  Senator.  Himself  enamoured 
of  Cornificia,  the  sister  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  he  had  over- 
looked the  vivacity  of  his  wife,  and  she  had  at  one  time 
attracted  comment  by  her  open  regard  for  a  musician.  At 
the  time  of  the  murder  of  Commodus,  Pertinax  was 
Prefect  of  Rome.  He  retired  to  bed  on  that  last  night 
of  the  year  192  with  no  suspicion  of  the  great  events 
that  were  happening  in  the  Domus  Vectiliana,  to  which, 
it  seems,  Commodus  had  gone. 

In  the  middle  of  the  night  he  was  awakened  with  the 
message  that  the  captain  of  the  Praetorian  Guards  wished 
to  see  him.  He  calmly  said  that  he  had  for  some  time 
expected  to  be  executed  by  Commodus,  and  he  continued 
to  lie,  in  quiet  dignity,  when  Laetus  entered  to  tell  him 
that  they  offered  him  the  Empire.  He  begged  Laetus  to 
abandon  his  unseemly  joke,  and  carry  out  his  orders.  He 
was  at  last  convinced  that  Commodus  was  dead,  and, 
through  the  darkness  of  the  stormy  winter  night,  they 
made  their  way  to  the  camp.  They  announced  to  the 
guards  that  Commodus  had  died  of  apoplexy,  and  that 
Pertinax  was  submitted  to  be  chosen  by  them  as  Emperor. 
The  soldiers  listened  with  no  enthusiasm.  Under  the 
license  of  the  reign  of  Commodus  they  had  been  permitted 
to  take  the  most  extraordinary  liberties,  and  they  dreaded 
the  accession  of  a  commander.  The  news  had,  however, 
spread  by  this  time  through  the  city.  People  crowded 
into  the  torch-lit  streets,  and  poured  out  toward  the 
camp,  hailing  the  name  of  Pertinax  and  execrating  that 
of  Commodus.  A  promise  of  3,000  denarii  to  each  man 
overcame  the  last  opposition  of  the  Guards,  and  they 
coldly  consented  to  the  choice.  In  the  Senate,  too,  there 
was  hesitation.  "  We  see  behind  you,"  said  the  consul 
Falco,  "  the  ministers  of  Commodus's  crimes,  Laetus  and 
Marcia."  Pertinax  himself,  indeed,  was  still  very  reluc- 
tant ;  but  the  Senate  urged  the  Imperial  power  upon  him, 
and  the  new  year  dawned  at  Rome  upon  a  people  angrily 


THE   WIVES  OF  THE  SYBARITES  191 

scattering  the  statues  and  memorials  of  Commodus,  and 
expressing  a  wild  rejoicing  over  the  advent  of  its  new 
ruler. 

Titiana  never  bore  the  title  of  Augusta,  and  we  may 
dismiss  very  briefly  her  few  months  of  residence  in  the 
palace.    The  Senate  offered  the  title  of  Augusta  to  Titiana, 
and  that  of  Caesar  to  their  son,  but  Pertinax  refused  both. 
"  Let  the  boy  earn  it,"  he  said  of  his  son ;  and  Dio  says 
that  he  kept  the  title  from  his  wife,  either  because  of  the 
insecurity  of  his  position,  or  "  because  he  would  not  let  his 
lascivious  consort   stain  the   name   of  Augusta."    Titiana 
was  evidently  not  the  kind  of  woman  to  co-operate  with 
Pertinax  in  his  reforms,  and  she  probably  shared  the  dis- 
dain with  which  her  friends  regarded  his  ways.    Although 
he  at  once  began  to  undo  the  evil  wrought  by  Commodus — 
to  banish  the  informers,  regulate  the  taxes,  and  purify  the 
administration    of  justice — he   alienated    the   Romans  by 
passing  to  an  extreme  of  sobriety.    The  palace  he  purified 
in  very  summary  fashion.     He  had  the  whole  apparatus 
of  Commodus's  luxury  sold  by  auction,  and  Rome  looked 
on  with  delight  as  the  three  hundred  pretty  boys  and  three 
hundred  choice  concubines,  the  gold  and  silver  plate,  the 
precious    vases    and    silks    and    chariots    and   wonderful 
machines   of  the  Sybarite  were  exposed  to   their   view. 
But   Pertinax    carried    his   economy   too   far.      Patricians 
told  with  contempt  that  he  would  put   half  a  lettuce  on 
the   Imperial   board,  and  would   make  a  hare  last  three 
days  ;    the  people  missed    the   unceasing   stimulation  of 
the  amphitheatre;  the  soldiers  chafed  at  the  discipline  he 
sought  to  enforce.     Within  three  months  of  his  remark- 
able accession  to  power  Pertinax  was  assassinated  by  the 
Guards,   and   Titiana    fell    back   into    the  obscurity  from 
which  she  had  momentarily  emerged. 

Another  Empress  of  a  day,  and  one  that  came  to  the 
throne  under  no  less  romantic  circumstances,  claims  our 
attention  for  a  moment  before  we  pass  on  to  a  more 
imposing  figure. 

It  was   on  the   28th   of  March,   193,  that  the  soldiers 


192  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

brutally  assassinated  Pertinax.  On  the  rumour  of  trouble 
Pertinax  had  sent  his  father-in-law,  Sulpicianus,  to  secure 
tranquillity  in  the  camp.  As  he  lingered  there  the  soldiers 
returned  with  the  dripping  head  of  the  Emperor,  and  he 
recognized  that  the  throne  was  vacant.  With  a  callousness 
that  is  almost  incredible,  but  is  fully  attested,  he  at  once 
made  an  offer  of  money  to  the  soldiers  for  the  Imperial 
power.  It  occurred  to  some  of  the  soldiers  that  a  higher 
bid  might  be  secured,  and  they  announced  from  the  ram- 
part of  their  camp,  in  which  they  had  enclosed  themselves, 
that  the  throne  was,  virtually,  on  sale.  In  particular, 
they  sent  word  to  one  of  the  wealthiest  citizens,  Didius 
Julianus,  and  invited  him  to  make  an  offer.  Whether  or 
no  it  be  true  that  he  yielded  to  the  vanity  of  his  wife 
and  daughter — he  does  not  seem  to  have  needed  pressure 
— Julianus  went  to  the  camp,  and  made  a  higher  offer 
than  that  of  Sulpicianus. 

It  was  the  early  evening,  and  a  crowd  had  gathered 
to  witness  the  appalling  spectacle  of  the  sale  of  the  Empire. 
Julianus  pointed  out  that  his  rival  was  the  father-in-law  of 
the  man  they  had  killed,  and  might  be  expected  to  have  some 
design  of  revenge.  The  soldiers  admitted  Julianus  by  a 
ladder,  and  the  two  Senators  made  bids  against  each  other, 
the  soldiers  on  the  wall  announcing  their  offers.  At  length 
Julianus  made  an  offer  equal  to  more  than  ;^200  to  each 
soldier,  and  he  was  greeted  as  Emperor.  Under  the  close 
guard  of  the  soldiers  he  was  conducted,  amid  an  angry 
people,  to  the  Senate,  and  forced  upon  the  Senators.  They 
then  concluded  their  bargain  by  conducting  him  to  the 
palace,  and  the  vain  old  man  had  time  to  reflect  on  the 
extraordinary  situation  he  had  suddenly  reached.  His 
wife,  Manlia  Scantilla,  and  daughter,  Didia  Clara,  joined 
him  "  in  fear  and  concern  "  (the  "  Historia  Augusta  "  says), 
and  he  finished  the  day  with  a  prolonged  entertainment. 

His  wife  and  daughter  were  decorated  with  the  title  of 
Augusta  on  the  morrow,  but  they  soon  found  that  Julianus 
had  squandered  his  comfortable  wealth  on  a  dangerous 
bauble.      Not   only   did   the   Roman   people   jeer    at   him 


THE   WIVES   OF  THE  SYBARITES  193 

whenever  he  appeared,  but  the  news  soon  came  that  the 
distant  legions  were  aflame  with  anger,  and  were  about 
to  march  on  Rome  to  wrest  the  Empire  from  him.  Pre- 
sently he  heard  that  the  commander  of  the  troops  in 
Pannonia  had  begun  his  march  at  the  head  of  a  formidable 
army.  Julianus  first  had  him  declared  a  public  enemy,  and 
sent  men  to  assassinate  him ;  then  he  offered  to  share  the 
Empire  with  him.  Severus  and  his  hardened  troops  passed 
relentlessly  over  the  Alps,  and  proceeded  along  the  plains 
of  Italy.  Julianus  stung  the  demoralized  soldiers  who  had 
sold  him  the  Empire  into  some  pretence  of  resistance, 
threw  up  earthworks  in  the  suburbs,  endeavoured  to  train 
his  elephants  for  the  fight,  and,  as  a  last  resort,  fortified 
the  palace.  But  his  effeminate  troops  quailed  before  the 
seasoned  legions  from  Germany,  and,  when  Severus  reached 
Rome,  Julianus  found  himself  deserted.  The  Senate  de- 
creed his  death,  and  he  was  beheaded  in  the  palace  which 
he  had  enjoyed,  at  the  price  of  his  fortune  and  his  life,  for 
sixty-six  days.  And  the  two  broken-hearted  Augustse 
laid  down  their  dignity,  and  bore  the  body  of  Didius 
Julianus  to  the  tomb  of  his  ancestors. 

Marcia,  too,  had  ended  her  semi-imperial  career  with  a 
violent  death.  After  the  assassination  of  Commodus  she 
had  married  the  chamberlain  Eclectus,  with  whom  she  had 
long  been  intimate.  Eclectus  became  the  chamberlain  of 
Pertinax,  and  perished,  not  ignobly,  with  his  master. 
Marcia  did  not  long  survive  her  husband,  however. 
Julianus  had  promised  the  soldiers  that  he  would  avenge 
the  murder  of  Commodus,  and  he  sought  the  remaining 
members  of  the  conspiracy,  Laetus,  Narcissus,  and  Marci? 
and  put  them  to  death. 


13 


CHAPTER  XII 

JULIA  DOMNA 

WITH  the  accession  of  Septimius  Severus  to  the 
throne,  we  find  ourselves  confronting  one  of  the 
most  dominant  personalities  in  the  long  line  of 
Roman  Empresses — a  woman  of  the  standard  of  Livia, 
Agrippina,  and  Plotina — and  passing  again  into  one  of  the 
brighter  periods  of  the  life  of  the  Empire.  The  degrada- 
tion of  Commodus's  reign  will  disappear  like  a  mist  on  a 
summer  morn ;  the  jaded  frame  of  the  Empire  will  seem 
to  recover  all  its  vigour  in  a  few  years.  These  periods 
of  rapid  recovery  are  not  sufficiently  appreciated  by  the 
rhetorical  censors  of  the  morals  of  Rome,  whose  investi- 
gations are  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  reigns  of 
Caligula,  Nero,  Commodus,  Caracalla,  and  Elagabalus ;  as 
if  it  were  just  to  define  the  climate  of  a  region  by  its  worst 
days  only.  Let  a  strong  man  rise  to  power,  let  an  imperial 
encouragement  be  given  to  virtue  and  manliness,  and  even 
the  city  of  Rome  takes  on  a  normal  moral  aspect.  The 
throne  is  but  an  electric  point,  and,  according  as  it  is  posi- 
tive or  negative,  it  draws  into  the  light  of  history  either  the 
good  or  the  bad  elements  of  Rome.  Both  are  there  all  the 
time.  And  if  the  good  rulers  had  made  as  drastic  a  purge 
of  evil  types,  as  evil  rulers  made  of  good  types,  when  they 
came  to  power,  the  Empire  might  not  have  provided  so 
much  material  to  the  censors  of  extinct  civilizations. 

The  Empresses  whom  we  have  hitherto  considered 
were,  with  a  few  exceptions,  the  daughters  of  Roman 
patricians,  or  of  distinguished  provincials  who  had  lived  in 
Rome  for  a  generation  or  two.     In  lulia  Domna,  the  wife 

194 


JULIA  DOMNA  195 

of  Severus,  we  have  for  the  first  time  a  woman  of  the  East 
on  the  throne  ;  and,  as  her  family  will  for  some  time 
deeply  influence  the  fortunes  of  the  Empire,  it  will  be 
interesting  to  glance  at  her  origin. 

On  the  bank  of  the  Orontes  in  Syria,  at  the  large  village 
or  small  town  of  Emesa  (now  Hems),  there  was  in  the 
second  century  a  very  ancient  and  prosperous  religious 
centre.  At  some  early  date  in  the  history  of  the  land  a 
mysterious  stone  had  been  cast  on  the  country  from  the 
home  of  the  gods — a  meteorite,  modern  science  would  call 
it— and  it  had  been  set  up  as  a  symbol  of  the  Regenerating 
God  (Elagabal,  which  the  Greeks  improperly  turned  into 
Heliogabalus,  or  Sun-god).  A  fine  temple  was  in  time 
built  to  shelter  it,  pilgrims  sought  it  from  the  whole 
country,  and  the  richest  gifts  were  made  to  the  god  and 
his  living  representatives.  About  the  middle  of  the  second 
century  the  priest  in  charge  was  a  certain  Bassianus,  who 
had  two  handsome  and  very  clever  daughters.  The  planets 
which  presided  at  the  birth  of  the  elder  promised  her, 
according  to  the  astrologers,  a  throne ;  and,  as  there  was 
a  camp  of  Roman  soldiers  near  Emesa,  and  the  temple 
was  a  great  attraction  to  the  soldiers  in  their  exile,  the 
pretty  Syrian  girl  and  her  horoscope  came  to  be  known 
very  far  away.  In  the  year  186  or  187  an  offer  of  marriage 
came  to  the  priest's  daughter  from  one  of  the  highest 
officials,  the  legatus,  of  the  rich  province  of  Lower  Gaul, 
and  she  crossed  sea  and  land  to  accept  it.  Within  six 
years  this  officer,  Septimius  Severus,  was  Emperor  of 
Rome,  and  Julia  Domna  was  Empress. 

Some  doubt  has  been  thrown  on  this  pretty  story,  and 
Serviez,  whose  chapter  on  Julia  Domna  is  a  piece  of  irre- 
sponsible fiction,  describes  her  as  coming  to  Rome,  on  her 
own  account,  in  search  of  adventure.  But  we  have  abun- 
dant evidence  that  Severus  was  a  most  enthusiastic 
astrologer,  and  there  is  nothing  improbable  in  the  story. 
Severus  was  of  the  province  of  Roman  Africa,  of  humble 
family,  and,  like  so  many  energetic  men  in  the  days  of 
Antoninus  and  Marcus,  had  earned  promotion  from  office 


196  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

to  office.  He  had  first  married  a  certain  Paccia  Marciana 
at  Rome.  He  was  then  made  Praetor,  had  a  military 
command  in  Spain  and  Gaul,  spent  some  years  in  study 
at  Athens,  and  became  Legate  of  the  Lugdunian  province. 
At  Lyons  he  lost  his  first  wife,  and  sought  a  second.  Hear- 
ing that  there  was  a  maid  in  Syria  with  a  royal  horoscope, 
he  sent  for  her,  and  married  her  at  Lyons.  A  child  was  born 
the  first  year,  and,  although  Bassianus  (more  popularly, 
Caracalla)  is  described  by  Eutropius  and  Aurelius  Victor 
as  her  stepson,  he  was  undoubtedly  her  first  child.  Geta, 
his  brother  and  co-Emperor,  was  born  two  years  later. 

By  that  time  they  were  living  in  Rome,  where  Severus 
was  Consul.  Commodus,  whose  follies  excited  his  ambition 
no  less  than  his  disdain,  gave  him  the  command  in  Lower 
Germany.  Immediately  afterwards  Commodus  was  assas- 
sinated, and  about  three  months  later  came  the  news  of  the 
murder  of  Pertinax.  It  was  easy  to  inflame  the  troops 
with  anger  on  this  occasion,  and,  as  Severus  offered  a  more 
than  usually  heavy  bribe,  he  was  acclaimed  Emperor,  and, 
as  we  saw,  led  the  legions  upon  Rome.  We  do  not  know 
whether  Julia  had  remained  at  Rome,  or  accompanied  him, 
but  she  would  be  present  when  Rome  greeted  its  new 
ruler.  He  rode  in  full  armour,  in  the  centre  of  a  picked 
body  of  six  hundred  men.  When,  however,  he  saw  that 
Rome  had  entirely  deserted  Julianus,  he  entered  the  city  in 
civic  costume,  on  foot.  Flowers  and  laurel  and  gay  hang- 
ings decorated  all  the  houses,  and  the  early  summer  sun 
shone  on  the  white-robed  masses  of  the  citizens.  Another 
splendid,  but  less  joyous,  spectacle  was  offered  on  the 
morrow,  when  a  wax  image  of  Pertinax  was  honoured  with 
an  Imperial  funeral.  Then  he  set  about  the  stern  business 
of  securing  his  Empire.  He  had  no  title  to  it  but  his  sword, 
and  there  were  two  other  able  generals — Albinus  in  Britain 
and  Niger  in  Syria — urging  the  same  title  on  their  own 
behalf. 

We  do  not  know  whether  Julia  accompanied  Severus 
during  the  long  civil  war  that  followed.  Some  of  the 
authorities  represent  her  as  egging  on  her  husband  to  the 


JULIA   DOMNA  197 

destruction  of  his  rivals.  The  advice  would  not  be  un- 
natural, but  it  would  be  so  superfluous  that  we  disregard 
the  statement.  With  a  craft  that  has  not  won  him  the 
regard  of  historians,  Severus  held  Albinus  in  Britain  with 
the  empty  title  of  Caesar,  while  he  proceeded  to  crush 
Niger  in  the  East.  As  there  are  coins  of  the  year  196  which 
entitle  Julia  "  Mother  of  the  Camps,"  ^  she  probably  accom- 
panied Severus  to  the  East,  but  we  need  not  pursue  the 
long  campaign.  Severus  committed  the  work  to  his 
generals,  and  kept  watch  over  Rome  and  the  West.  Several 
years  were  absorbed  in  pacifying  the  East,  and  he  then 
turned  toward  Britain.  Acting  under  the  strain  of  African 
barbarism  which  undoubtedly  existed  in  the  nature  of 
Severus,  he  sent  men  with  a  treacherous  commission  to 
murder  Albinus,  and  the  discovery  of  the  plot  brought  the 
British  legions  thundering  over  Gaul.  The  rivals  met 
decisively  at  Lyons,  and  a  titanic  conflict  ended  with  the 
triumph  of  Severus. 

Rome  had  followed  the  even  struggle  with  suspense, 
and  some  had  ventured  to  take  sides.  The  omens  were 
ambiguous.  A  strange  light — the  aurora — flickered  in  the 
northern  sky,  and  a  rain  mixed  with  silver — Dio  soberly 
assures  us  that  he  plated  several  bronze  coins  with  it — fell 
upon  the  city.  Human  judgment  had  been  as  uncertain  as 
that  of  the  gods,  and  many  of  the  Romans  had  espoused 
the  "white"  (Albinus)  or  the  "black"  (Niger)  cause, 
instead  of  that  of  the  "  grey,"  to  put  it  in  the  language  of 
the  hour.  For  Severus  to  have  abstained  entirely  from 
punishing  those  who  had  supported  his  rivals,  after  the 
years  of  anxiety  they  had  caused  him,  is  too  much  to 
expect;  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  his  vengeance  was 
cruel,  and  that  his  plea  of  the  security  of  the  State  was 

'  The  references  on  coins  and  inscriptions  to  Julia  Domna  have  been 
industriously  collected  by  Mary  Gilmore  Wilkins,  American  Journal  of 
Archceology,  2nd  series,  vol.  vi.  They  do  not  add  materially  to  our  knowledge 
of  her,  but  are  so  abundant  that  they  show  her  to  have  been  an  Empress 
of  exceptional  prominence  and  influence.  She  became  Augusta  in  the  first 
year. 


198  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

little  more  than  a  cloak  for  a  very  human  resentment.  The 
"  Historia  Augusta"  gives  a  ghastly  list  of  forty-one  Senators 
whom  he  put  to  death,  and  crowds  of  lesser  folk  suffered 
from  his  vindictiveness.  From  Syria  to  Gaul  he  marked 
the  progress  of  his  triumph  with  a  trail  of  human  blood. 

Of  the  attitude  of  Julia  in  regard  to  these  executions  we 
have  no  knowledge.  Severus  was  a  cruel  and  passionate 
African,  and  we  have  no  reason  to  think  that  any  one 
impelled  him  to  commit  these  deeds.  His  whole  behaviour 
in  the  hour  of  triumph  was  injudicious  and  unworthy.  He 
made  a  most  unpleasant  speech  to  the  Senate  in  praise  of 
Commodus,  and  directed  that  the  highest  honours  should 
be  paid  to  his  memory.  It  may  be  that  the  consciousness 
of  his  lowly  origin — which  his  sister  tactlessly  irritated  by 
coming  to  Rome,  and  displaying  her  rural  innocence  to  the 
amusement  of  the  nobles — made  him  more  suspicious  of  the 
patrician  order  than  he  need  have  been.  Albinus,  however, 
had  come  of  a  most  ancient  and  honourable,  if  somewhat 
decayed,  stock,  and  his  finer  blood  may  have  influenced  the 
Senate. 

Leaving  Rome  under  a  painful  impression  of  his  harsh 
use  of  power,  he  set  out  for  the  East,  where  the  Parthians 
were  again  in  arms.  Julia  accompanied  him  on  this  cam- 
paign, but  it  is  of  little  interest.  The  Parthians  retired 
before  his  advance,  and  he  pursued  them  down  the 
Euphrates,  and  for  a  time  held  Babylon  and  several  of  the 
ancient  cities  of  the  East.  Foiled,  and  incurring  heavy 
losses,  in  the  siege  of  Hatra,  he  retired  sullenly  from 
Mesopotamia,  and  sought  consolation  in  a  pleasant  tour 
through  Palestine  and  Egypt.  They  returned  to  Rome, 
about  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  for  their  first  long 
stay  in  the  capital. 

The  remarkable  number  of  inscriptions  that  still  survive 
in  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  Empire  bear  witness  that 
Julia  was  already  regarded  as  an  active  Empress,  not 
merely  as  the  companion  of  Severus.  Probably  she  comes 
next  to  Livia — some  would  place  her  before  Livia — in  the 
general  recognition  of  her  political  existence.     But  on  her 


JULIA   DOMNA  199 

return  to  Rome  she  found  a  bitter  opponent  in  the  person 
of  Severus's  chief  minister,  and  for  a  time  she  confined 
herself  to  personal  concerns.  This  minister,  Plautianus, 
was  a  fellow-townsman,  possibly  a  relative,  of  the  Emperor, 
and  enjoyed  and  abused  his  entire  confidence.  He  was 
promoted  to  the  command  of  the  Praetorian  Guards,  whom 
Severus,  after  punishing  them  for  the  murder  of  Pertinax, 
had  reorganized  and  enormously  increased.  Finding  him- 
self at  the  head  of  fifty  thousand  picked  men,  and  entrusted, 
during  the  long  absence  of  the  Emperor,  with  the  supreme 
affairs  of  State,  Plautianus  indulged  his  vanity  in  the 
strangest  excesses.  When  his  superb  chariot  drove  through 
Rome,  runners  were  sent  ahead  to  warn  the  common  folk 
that  they  must  turn  away,  and  not  gaze  on  his  august 
person ;  and  there  were  more  statues  of  him  in  Rome  than 
of  the  Emperor.  He  even  had  a  hundred  Romans,  of 
all  ages,  including  many  of  noble  birth,  emasculated,  in 
order  that  his  daughter  might  be  attended  with  all  the 
splendour  and  security  of  an  Oriental  harem.  Severus 
begged  the  hand  of  this  privileged  maiden  for  his  elder 
son.  Bassianus  was  then  (203)  in  his  sixteenth  year,  and 
had  just  been  nominated  Caesar  by  his  father.  Plautianus 
consented,  and  a  princely  wedding  took  place.  People 
remarked,  as  the  rich  gifts  were  borne  through  the  Forum 
to  the  palace,  that  the  Prefect  of  the  Guards  had  been  able 
to  give  his  daughter  a  dowry  that  would  have  sufficed  for 
the  daughters  of  fifty  kings. 

Two  circumstances  conspired  to  wreck  this  auspicious 
marriage.  Bassianus  disliked  Plautilla,  Julia  hated  her 
conceited  and  overbearing  father.  A  third  circumstance, 
in  the  opinion  of  Rome,  was  that  Bassianus  was  already 
too  intimate  with  a  fiery  little  Syrian  cousin,  then  living  at 
the  palace,  of  whom  we  shall  see  much  in  the  next  chapter. 
At  length  Plautianus  brought  a  formal  charge  against  the 
Empress,  and  there  was  agitation  in  the  palace.  The 
charge  seems  to  have  been  one  of  adultery,  and,  though 
it  was  not  established,  some  of  the  later  historians  declare 
that  she  owed  her  escape  only  to  the  fondness  of  Severus. 


200  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Aurelius  Victor  ("  De  Caesaribus,"  xx)  says  that  "  his  wife's 
infamies  robbed  Severus  of  the  height  of  his  glory  " ;  and 
he  charges  her  with,  to  the  Emperor's  knowledge,  loose  ways 
and  treason.  Lampridius  ("  Historia  Augusta,"  "  Severus," 
c.  1 8)  affirms  that  she  was  "notorious  for  her  adulteries 
and  guilty  of  conspiracy."  Eutropius  and  Herodian  join 
with  them  in  bringing  an  even  graver  charge  against  her 
later.  Dio,  however,  who  was  on  the  spot,  brings  no 
charge  against  her  character,  and  many  hold  that  his 
silence  is  more  instructive  than  the  chatter  of  later 
compilers.  We  may  add  that  Severus  was  very  eager  to 
stamp  out  adultery,  and,  although  his  efforts  were 
frustrated  by  the  unwillingness  of  the  citizens  to  use  his 
law — Dio,  when  he  was  consul,  found  three  thousand  charges 
lying  unheeded  in  the  offices — his  known  temper  must  be 
taken  into  account.  On  the  other  hand,  Dio  wrote  his 
history  in  the  reign  of  a  member  of  Julia's  family,  and  may 
have  omitted  much  out  of  discretion. 

The  evidence  is,  as  usual,  perplexing,  and  there  is  no 
need  to  press  for  a  verdict.  The  Oriental  religion,  to 
which  Julia  adhered,  was  not  one  to  lay  bonds  upon  the 
passion  of  love,  and  the  removal  from  the  guarded  seclusion 
of  the  East  to  the  free  life  of  the  West  would  not  engender 
scruples.  The  charge,  in  fact,  was  not  admitted  by  Severus 
to  be  proved,  though  noble  dames  were  tortured  to  wring 
evidence  from  them.  After  this  scorching  ordeal,  how- 
ever, Julia  moderated  her  open  hostility  to  Plautianus, 
and  sought  consolation  in  a  close  application  to  letters 
and  philosophy.  Her  sister,  Julia  Maesa,  had  by  this 
time  come  from  Emesa  to  join  her  in  the  palace,  and 
had  brought  two  married  daughters,  of  whom  we  shall 
hear  more.^  With  these,  and  the  literary  men  of  Rome, 
she  formed  an  intellectual  circle,  and  withdrew  from  politics. 

But  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  Julia  encouraged  her 

*  I  conclude  that  they  had  already  come  to  Rome  because  Elagabalus,  the 
son  of  Soeemias,  was  given  serious  consideration  in  his  later  claim  that  he  was 
the  son  of  Bassianus.  He  was  born  in  204,  and,  unless  his  mother  had  been 
in  the  palace  before  that  date,  the  claim  could  not  have  been  made. 


JULIA  DOMNA  201 

son's  dislike  of  Plautilla.  Herodian  declares  that  the 
young  wife  was  "  a  most  shameless  creature."  We  may 
refuse  to  accept  this  description  of  the  unhappy  young 
princess,  and  see  in  it  only  an  echo  of  the  attack  upon 
her.  Bullied  and  threatened  by  Bassianus,  she  at  last 
returned  in  tears  to  her  father's  mansion,  and  the  Prefect 
renewed  his  attacks  with  great  warmth.  Severus  refused 
to  hear  complaints  against  him,  until  his  brother  Geta 
suggested  to  him,  on  his  death-bed,  that  Plautianus  was 
acquiring  his  enormous  wealth  with  a  view  to  seizing  the 
throne.  From  that  hour  Severus  behaved  more  coldly  to 
his  minister,  and  Julia's  party  took  courage.  At  length 
Bassianus  persuaded  his  father  that  the  minister  was 
plotting.  If  we  may  believe  the  romantic  version,  Plau- 
tianus sent  a  man  to  assassinate  Severus  and  his  sons. 
The  man  betrayed  him  at  the  palace,  and  was  directed 
by  Bassianus  to  return  and  pretend  to  bring  the  Prefect 
to  see  the  dead  bodies.  At  all  events,  Plautianus  came 
in  haste  to  the  palace,  was  alarmed  to  see  the  gates  close 
behind  him,  and  was  led  to  the  presence  of  the  Emperor 
and  Bassianus.  Shortly  afterwards,  the  head  of  Plautianus 
was  tossed  on  to  the  street  from  the  roof  of  the  palace. 
Dio  adds  that  a  man  plucked  a  handful  of  hair  from  the 
bleeding  head,  and  rushed  with  it  to  Julia  and  Plautilla, 
crying  :  "  Behold  your  Plautianus ! "  The  unhappy  girl  was 
banished  to  Lipara,  and  was  executed  there  by  Bassianus 
after  the  death  of  his  father. 

It  was  perhaps  inevitable  that  a  series  of  executions 
should  follow  the  fall  of  the  favourite,  but  in  a  short  time 
the  life  of  the  palace  fell  into  a  quiet  routine.  Severus, 
a  big,  powerful  man,  with  a  crown  of  grey  hair  above 
his  venerable  features,  set  an  example  of  sobriety  and 
industry.  He  was  generally  at  work  before  dawn,  and 
would  return  to  work  after  a  frugal  midday-meal  with 
his  boys.  They  were  years  of  peace  and  prosperity,  and 
he  made  admirable  use  of  the  opportunity  to  restore  the 
decaying  buildings  and  institutions  of  the  Empire,  and  to 
replenish  the  treasury.     He  regretted  his  lack  of  culture, 


202  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

and  listened  with  deference  to  the  learned  discussions  in 
which  his  wife  and  her  relatives  engaged.  His  one  ac- 
complishment in  the  way  of  science  was  a  thorough  com- 
mand of  the  mysteries  of  astrology,  as  the  golden  stars 
with  which  he  decorated  the  ceilings  of  his  palace  informed 
the  visitor. 

Julia  joined  with  him  in  the  work  of  restoration.  We 
know  that  at  Rome  she  rebuilt  the  temple  of  Vesta,  and 
the  numerous  provincial  inscriptions  suggest  a  much  wider 
interest.  Under  her  lead  the  women  of  Rome  were  en- 
couraged to  look  beyond  their  homes.  Sabina  had  erected, 
or  dedicated,  a  meeting-hall  for  women  in  the  Forum  of 
Trajan,  but  it  had  fallen  into  decay.  Julia  restored  this 
early  "  women's  club,"  and  no  doubt  introduced  into  it 
the  enthusiasm  for  letters  and  philosophy  which  she  still 
had.  Her  "  circle,"  as  Philostratus  calls  it,  probably  in- 
cluded the  historian  Dio,  who  was  still  at  Rome,  and  the 
poet  Appian,  who  had  some  years  before  described  her 
as  "the  great  Domna."  Philostratus  himself,  a  Greek 
writer  and  rhetorician,  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  the 
time,  was  closely  associated  with  her.  It  was  at  her  request 
that  he  wrote  his  famous  "  Life  of  ApoUonius  of  Tyana." 
In  his  "Lives  of  the  Sophists"  (Philiscus)  he  speaks  of 
her  as  "Julia  the  Philosopher,"  and  in  one  of  his  letters 
(Ixxiii)  he  refers  with  high  appreciation  to  her  learning. 

Julia  was  then  in  the  prime  of  her  life,  and  in  her 
happiest  days.  The  bust  of  her  that  quickly  catches  the 
eye  in  the  Vatican  Museum — the  largest  surviving  portrait- 
bust  of  the  period — will  hardly  be  deemed  to  possess  the 
beauty  with  which  the  historians  invest  her.  The  thick 
lips  and  large  nose,  which  betray  her  ancestry,  do  not 
compare  well  with  the  features  of  other  Empresses.  But 
the  grave,  strong,  thoughtful  face  and  large  eyes,  which 
we  may  imagine  instinct  with  Syrian  fire,  are  undeniably 
handsome.  Her  sister,  Julia  Maesa,  was  with  her — a 
woman  of  similar  strength,  moderation,  and  judgment. 
But  the  younger  generation  in  the  palace  gave  them  con- 
cern.   The  young  men,  Bassianus  and  Geta,  were  loose 


JULIA   DOMNA 

BUST    IN    THK   VATICAN    MUSEUM 


JULIA   DOMNA  203 

and  luxurious  in  their  ways ;  and  one  of  the  daughters  of 
Maesa,  Julia  Soaemias,  was  a  fit  companion  for  Bassianus. 
Severus,  noting  the  advance  of  his  gout,  looked  with  grave 
eyes  on  the  soft  habits  and  the  constant  quarrels  of  the 
sons  whom  he  wished  to  leave  partners  in  the  Empire. 

An  irruption  of  the  Caledonians  in  the  north  of  Britain 
led  him  to  think  that  a  campaign  under  his  eyes  would 
alter  the  evil  ways  of  his  sons,  and  he  set  out  for  the 
West.  Julia  accompanied  them,  but  we  can  hardly  suppose 
that  she  ventured  further  north  than  Eboracum  (York). 
The  mist-wrapped  hills  and  watery  lowlands  beyond  were 
to  the  Roman  a  shuddering  wilderness,  fit  only  for  the 
breeding  of  savages  who  were  as  amphibious  as  rats. 
Dio  unflatteringly  describes  the  north  Britons  and  Scots 
of  the  time  as  "  inhabiting  wild,  waterless  mountains  and 
desolate,  swampy  plains,"  and  "  dwelling  in  tents,  without 
coats  or  shoes,  possessing  their  wives  and  rearing  their 
offspring  in  common."  We  may  find  some  consolation  in 
the  assurance  of  Lampridius  that  Britain  (south  of  this 
region)  was  "the  greatest  glory  of  the  Empire."  Even 
the  Scots,  however,  had  their  glories.  When  Severus 
returned  to  York,  after  having  pushed  to  the  extreme 
north  of  Caledonia,  and  lost  50,000  men  without  bringing 
the  elusive  enemy  to  battle,  he  brought  with  him  envoys 
of  the  Caledonians  to  discuss  the  terms  of  peace.  Among 
them  was  the  wife  of  the  chief  "  Argentocoxus  " — should 
it  be  Macdermott  ?— with  whom  the  philosophic  Empress 
held  converse  through  an  interpreter.  Julia  insinuated  that 
their  matrimonial  arrangements  were  not  all  that  could  be 
desired.  "  We  satisfy  the  needs  of  nature  in  a  much  better 
way  than  you  Roman  women,"  said  the  hardy  Scot.  "  We 
have  dealings  openly  with  the  best  of  our  men,  whereas 
you  let  yourselves  be  debauched  in  secret  by  the  vilest." 
Eugenics  is  an  ancient  practice,  if  a  modern  theory. 

Severus  was  borne  back,  weary  and  dispirited,  on  his 
litter  to  York.  Bassianus,  impatient  to  reach  the  throne 
that  he  would  soon  disgrace,  had  attempted  his  father's 
life,  and  fully  exhibited  the  brutality  of  his  character.    Yet 


204  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Severus,  who  had  often  censured  Marcus  Aurelius  for 
entrusting  the  Empire  to  Commodus,  listened  in  turn  to 
the  fond  pleading  of  his  parental  feeling,  and  designated 
his  sons  as  his  successors.  He  died  at  York  in  February, 
211,  and  a  hasty  settlement  was  made  of  affairs  in  Britain 
that  they  might  return  at  once  to  the  capital.  They 
placed  the  ashes  of  the  Emperor  in  an  alabaster  urn,  and 
set  out  with  it  for  Rome. 

From  that  day  the  life  of  Julia  Domna  was  one  of 
anxiety,  and  we  may  trust  that  it  was  one  of  pain.  Even 
on  the  journey  homeward  her  sons  were  ostentatiously 
armed  against  each  other's  designs.  Bassianus — or  Anto- 
ninus, as  he  had  now  been  named — was  a  strong,  brutal, 
and  imperious  youth,  as  eager  to  murder  his  brother  as 
he  had  been  to  shorten  his  father's  life.  Geta  was  brighter, 
gentler,  and  more  cultivated,  and  the  affection  of  the 
legions  for  him  kept  Antoninus  in  check  while  they  were 
with  the  army.  When  they  arrived  in  Rome,  their  first 
business  was  the  funeral  of  Severus.  His  pale  wax  image 
was  laid  on  a  lofty  ivory  couch,  and  the  black-robed 
Senators  and  white-clad  matrons  watched  it  for  seven  days. 
Then  it  was  borne  to  the  old  Forum,  where  the  chorus  of 
sons  and  women  of  the  nobility  sang  the  old  funeral 
chants,  and  on  to  the  great  wooden  tower,  stuffed  with 
spices  and  inflammable  matter,  in  the  Field  of  Mars; 
where,  from  the  midst  of  the  flaming  pile,  the  released 
eagle  symbolized  the  passage  of  the  soul  of  Severus  to 
the  home  of  the  gods. 

The  quarrel  between  Antoninus  and  Geta  at  once  broke 
out  with  greater  menace  than  ever.  They  kept  their 
separate  apartments  rigidly  guarded  in  the  palace,  and 
a  troop  of  soldiers  and  athletes  watched  day  and  night 
over  the  person  of  the  younger  Emperor.  Some  one  sug- 
gested that  the  Empire  should  be  divided,  as  it  was  later, 
and  that  Geta  should  take  the  Asiatic  half,  Herodian 
says — though  one  reads  with  suspicion  his  full  reports  of 
speeches  that  were  made  a  century  before — that  Julia 
opposed  this  plan  passionately.    They  must  divide  their 


JULIA   DOMNA  205 

mother,  she  declared,  before  they  should  divide  the  Empire. 
The  gloom  grew  deeper  over  the  palace,  and  the  inevitable 
end  did  not  tarry  long.  Antoninus  one  day  professed  that 
he  wished  to  be  reconciled,  and  invited  Geta  to  meet  him 
in  his  mother's  room.  As  soon  as  Geta  entered,  the 
officers  whom  Antoninus  had  at  hand  drew  their  swords. 
Geta  flew  to  his  mother's  bosom,  and  she  put  her  arms 
about  him ;  but  they  killed  him  in  her  embrace,  and  even 
cut  the  arm  in  which  she  clasped  him.  Once  more  the 
channels  ran  with  the  best  blood  of  Rome,  as  Antoninus 
turned  vindictively  upon  the  supporters  of  his  brother. 
Even  ancient  nobles  who  had  survived  several  of  these 
massacres,  such  as  Claudius  Pompeianus,  the  second  hus- 
band of  Marcus  Aurelius's  daughter,  now  came  to  a  violent 
end.  The  aged  sister  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  Cornificia,  was 
put  to  death  for  weeping  at  the  news  of  the  brutal  crime. 
Dio  assures  us  that  no  less  than  20,000  men  and  women, 
including  some  of  the  finest  of  the  time,  were  put  to  death 
in  that  awful  carnage.  Surely  one  of  the  chief  causes  of 
the  deterioration  of  Rome — these  repeated  purges  of  its 
best  elements — has  been  overlooked  in  the  endless  specu- 
lations about  its  fall ! 

The  "  Historia  Augusta  "  tells  us  that  Julia  herself  was 
discovered  in  tears  by  Antoninus,  and  only  escaped  death 
because  the  Emperor  feared  a  rebellion  if  he  killed  her. 
Curiously  enough,  the  same  historian,  and  several  others, 
go  on  to  give  us  a  far  different  and  less  honourable 
account  of  her  conduct  after  the  death  of  Geta.  In  the 
general  horror  with  which  his  abominable  deeds  were 
contemplated,  Antoninus  had  the  astuteness  to  purchase 
the  favour  of  the  army.  He  bestowed  an  extraordinary 
donation  on  the  Guards,  and  entered  upon  a  systematic 
policy  of  enriching  and  indulging  the  troops.  From  the 
pale  faces  of  the  citizens  of  Rome  he  retired  to  the  military 
quarters  on  the  Danube,  and  endeavoured  by  a  year  of 
hard  hunting  and  carousing  to  banish  the  ghosts  which, 
he  confessed,  haunted  him.  Inscriptions  have  been  found 
in  Germany  which  suggest  that  his  mother  was  with  him. 


2o6  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

However  that  may  be,  she  joined  him  when  he  crossed 
the  Hellespont  to  Asia — and  was  nearly  drowned  in  the 
passage — and  began  to  take  a  most  important  part  in  the 
administration.  With  the  Senate,  over  whom  he  had  set 
in  authority  a  Spanish  juggler,  he  was  too  disdainful  to 
deal,  except  on  the  most  important  subjects.  His  chief 
aim  was  to  wring  money  out  of  Rome  and  the  provinces, 
and  spend  it  on  the  troops.  He  "plundered  the  whole 
earth,"  says  Dio.  He  wore  the  long  rough  cloak  of  a 
Goth — from  which  he  was  given  the  nickname  of  "  Cara- 
calla  "  (the  name  of  the  garment) — and  ate  the  rough  food 
of  a  soldier  on  campaign ;  though  he  gave  himself  wildly 
to  the  luxurious  life  of  the  cities  of  Asia  Minor. 

Julia  settled  in  Nicomedia,  where  she  spent  a  good  part 
of  214  and  215,  and  then  in  Antioch.  Caracalla  never 
married  again ;  indeed,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
venereal  disease  was  the  chief  cause  of  his  madness  and 
brutality  during  these  years.  As  a  boy,  "  reared  by  a 
Christian  nurse,"  says  Tertullian,  he  had  been  most  gentle 
and  humane.  Julia,  therefore,  was  still  Empress,  and  she 
undertook  the  greater  part  of  Caracalla's  work.  All  letters 
from  Rome  were  forwarded  to  her,  and  she  dealt  with 
them  all,  except  a  few  that  had  to  be  submitted  to  the 
Emperor.  The  inscriptions  cut  in  honour  of  her  during 
these  years  were  remarkably  numerous,  and  from  them 
and  the  coins  we  learn  how  great  were  her  authority  and 
influence.  Her  official  title  grew  until  it  at  length  became : 
"Julia  Pia  Felix  Augusta,  Mater  Augusti  et  Castrorum 
et  Senatus  et  Patriae."  All  the  several  epithets  that  were 
ever  bestowed  on  other  Empresses  were  gathered  together 
in  her  name. 

This  intimate  association  with  so  foul  an  Emperor  as 
Caracalla  lent  colour  to  the  current  belief  that  she  was 
linked  with  him  in  another  capacity  than  that  of  mother. 
Herodian  (iiii),  Eutropius  (viii),  and  Aurelius  Victor 
(*'  Epitome,"  xxi),  give  the  charge  as  an  undoubted  fact. 
Spartianus  ("  Historia  Augusta,"  "  Caracalla,"  x)  gives  a 
circumstantial  story  of  the  mother  leading  the  son  astray, 


JULIA  DOMNA  207 

and  Aurelius  Victor  gives  the  same  anecdote  in  his  "  De 
Caesaribus,"  xxi.  She  is  said  to  have  presented  herself  to 
Caracalla  in  what  Serviez  calls  "  an  exceedingly  magnifi- 
cent and  becoming  dress" — se  maxima  corporis  parte  de- 
nudasset,  is  the  text — and  yielded  with  ease.  The  anecdote 
is  too  common  a  sample  of  the  salacious  gossip  of  the  time 
to  be  taken  seriously,  but  the  substantial  charge  is  not 
so  easily  set  aside.  Dio,  it  is  true,  does  not  give  it.  When 
he  speaks  (c.  10)  of  Caracalla  having  "  possessed  the 
rascality  [Travovp'^ov'\  of  his  mother,"  he  does  not  indeed 
pay  a  tribute  to  her  character,  but  the  word  he  employs 
seems  to  indicate  craft,  perhaps  unscrupulous  craft,  rather 
than  lasciviousness. 

But  even  Dio  relates  an  adventure  which  fairly  shows 
that  this  grave  charge  against  Julia  was  widely  credited 
in  his  day.  In  the  year  216,  during  his  tour  in  the  East, 
Caracalla  announced  that  he  would  honour  Alexandria 
with  a  visit.  Unsparing  as  the  Alexandrians  had  been  in 
their  witticisms  on  the  ugly,  bald,  and  prematurely  old  young 
man,  with  all  his  brutality  and  folly,  they  had  no  suspicion 
of  his  real  intention,  and  they  prepared  to  receive  him 
with  great  honour.  Once  inside  their  gates,  however,  he 
savagely  precipitated  his  troops  on  the  unarmed  citizens 
and  for  several  days  directed  the  carnage  and  pillage  from 
the  temple  of  Serapis.  This  savage  onslaught  is  said  by 
Dio  to  have  been  a  punishment  for  the  jibes  of  the  Alex- 
andrians, and  we  know  from  Herodian  that  one  of  their 
most  deadly  shafts  was  to  speak  of  him  and  his  mother  as 
(Edipus  and  Jocaste. 

It  cannot  therefore  be  said  that  Dio  is  unaware  of  the 
current  belief,  nor  can  we  follow  Miss  Wilkins  when  she 
suggests  that  the  "  elderly  Empress  "  was  incapable  of  such 
conduct.  Julia  had  been  married  only  twenty-nine  years 
before,  and  may  very  well  be  presumed  to  have  been  in 
her  early  forties  in  the  year  216.  She  was  in  "the  full 
flush  of  life,"  as  Dio  expressly  says,  and  is  not  known  to 
have  embraced  any  system  of  ethics  or  religion  which 
would  lay  a  stigma  on  incest.     But  the  general  moderation 


2o8  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

of  her  career  and  the  repellent  character  of  Caracalla, 
unrelieved  by  a  single  grace  of  person  or  disposition,  must 
weigh  heavily  in  the  scale  against  the  gossip  of  Rome, 

We  know,  at  least,  that  she  endeavoured  to  curb  the 
wild  excesses  that  were  bringing  a  doom  on  her  son  and 
endangering  the  stability  of  the  Empire.  When  he  debased 
the  coinage,  and  despoiled  his  subjects,  she  remonstrated, 
but  he  laughingly  drew  his  sword  and  said:  "Courage, 
mother,  while  we  have  this,  money  will  not  fail  us."  "In 
such  things,"  says  Dio,  "  he  paid  no  heed  to  his  mother, 
who  gave  him  much  excellent  advice."  She  continued  to 
act  as  the  first  minister  of  her  son,  while  he  wandered 
from  region  to  region  in  search  of  adventure.  One  of  his 
exploits  will  suffice  to  illustrate  his  peculiar  method  of 
winning  glory.  From  Egypt  he  advanced  against  the 
Parthians.  He  sent  a  flattering  letter  to  the  Parthian 
king,  submitting  that  the  two  great  Empires  ought  amic- 
ably to  divide  the  world,  and  asking  for  the  hand  of  his 
daughter.  His  persistent  lying  disarmed  even  the  crafty 
Parthians,  and  he  was  admitted  into  their  kingdom  with 
a  body  of  troops.  He  at  once  flung  his  troops  upon 
the  vast  unarmed  multitude  that  came  out  to  greet  him, 
mingled  their  blood  with  the  flowers  they  had  strewn 
in  his  path,  and  sacked  a  large  part  of  Medea  and  Parthia. 

But  the  end  of  his  infamous  life  was  rapidly  approach- 
ing. He  had  written  to  Rome,  some  time  previously,  to 
direct  that  the  Chaldaeans  should  be  consulted  as  to  the 
name  of  his  successor,  so  that  he  might  slay  the  man 
named.  The  minister  to  whom  he  wrote  had  some  griev- 
ance against  one  of  the  officials  in  the  East,  Opilius 
Macrinus,  and  he  wrote  to  inform  Caracalla  that  Macrinus 
was  designated  by  an  African  soothsayer.  The  more 
romantic  historians  say  that  this  letter  reached  Caracalla 
just  as  he  was  engaged  in  directing  a  race,  and  that  he 
gave  it,  unopened,  to  Macrinus  himself  to  deal  with.  More 
plausible  is  the  story  related  by  Dio.  The  letter  went, 
as  all  letters  went,  to  the  Empress  at  Antioch,  and  a  delay 
was  caused.    Macrinus  had,  in  the  meantime,  learned  from 


JULIA  DOMNA  209 

Rome  the  danger  that  threatened  him,  and  he  set  energetic- 
ally to  work.  A  discontented  soldier  in  Caracalla's  body- 
guard was  secured,  and  on  the  8th  of  March,  217,  he  ended 
that  Emperor's  infamies  with  the  thrust  of  a  dagger.  It 
was  a  timely  release  for  Rome.  It  was  discovered  after 
his  death  that  he  had  bought  great  quantities  of  poison  in 
Asia. 

Julia  indulged  in  an  unusual  display  of  violence  when 
the  news  reached  her  at  Antioch.  She  mourned  little 
over  the  removal  of  her  son,  says  Dio,  as  she  "  had  hated 
him  when  he  was  alive  " ;  but  the  prospect  of  laying  down 
her  Imperial  power,  and  retiring  into  private  life,  in  the 
prime  of  her  womanhood,  filled  her  with  anger.  She 
learned  that,  after  a  brief  hesitation,  Macrinus  had  promised 
the  usual  bribe  to  the  troops,  and  obtained  the  Empire. 
Rumour  quickly  recognized  in  him  the  assassin  of  Cara- 
calla,  and  Julia  made  the  most  violent  attacks  on  him. 
Meantime,  he  had  written  to  assure  her  that  he  would 
recognize  her  Imperial  status,  and  not  remove  her  guard 
of  honour.  He  feared  the  attachment  of  the  soldiers  to 
Caracalla,  and  disavowed  his  share  in  the  assassination. 
Julia  perceived  his  weakness,  and,  abandoning  her  first 
resolve  to  take  her  life  by  refusing  food,  she  enter- 
tained a  hope  of  unseating  the  upstart.  But  the  soldiers, 
however  much  attached  to  Caracalla,  had  little  idea  of 
putting  a  Semiramis  on  the  throne  of  Rome.  Her  plan 
miscarried,  and  Macrinus  heard  of  her  invectives.  He 
ordered  her  to  leave  Antioch,  and  go  where  she  willed. 
Her  sister  and  nieces  returned  to  the  paternal  temple 
at  Emesa,  where  we  shall  soon  rejoin  them,  but  Julia, 
failing  entirely  to  foresee  the  extraordinary  adventure  by 
which  they  would  shortly  return  to  power,  racked  with 
the  pain  of  a  cancer,  which  she  had  aggravated  by  a  blow 
on  the  breast  in  her  first  anger,  decided  to  leave  the 
world.  She  refused  food,  and  died  in  May  or  June,  217. 
Her  remains  were  afterwards  buried  with  great  pomp  at 
Rome,  and  her  name  was  added  to  the  quaint  list  of  the 
Imperial  gods  and  goddesses. 
14 


CHAPTER  XIII 

IN   THE   DAYS  OF  ELAGABALUS 

THE  fates  were  now  preparing  as  strange  a  revolution, 
and  bringing  upon  the  Imperial  stage  as  grotesque 
a  figure,  as  any  that  have  yet  come  under  our 
notice.  Three  women — the  sister  and  the  nieces  of  Julia 
Domna — are  the  engineers  of  this  revolution,  and,  clothed 
with  the  Imperial  dignity,  control  the  fortunes  of  Rome 
in  the  extraordinary  period  that  followed  it.  But  before 
we  introduce  the  tragi-comic  figure  of  Elagabalus,  we  must 
clear  the  stage  of  the  temporary  Emperor  and  his  faint 
shadow  of  an  Empress. 

Opilius  Macrinus  was  a  weak,  vain,  and  unimpressive 
old  man.  Accident  had  put  the  Empire  within  his  reach. 
He  timidly  grasped  it  because  no  other  offered  to  do  so, 
and  held  it  until  another  desired  it.  He  was  in  his  fifty- 
third  year,  a  man  of  obscure  African  origin,  an  adventurer 
in  the  public  service.  He  was  married  to  Nonia  Celsa, 
of  whom  we  know  only  that  her  qualities  were  not 
generally  believed  to  include  the  possession  of  virtue. 
Their  son  Diadumenianus  was  a  tall  and  handsome  youth, 
with  black  eyes  and  curly  yellow  hair.  When  his  father 
made  him  Caesar,  and  he  donned  a  purple  robe,  the 
spectators  are  said  to  have  melted  with  affection.  He 
lived  long  enough  to  show,  by  urging  his  parents  to  deal 
more  drastically  with  rebels,  that  his  heart  was  not  so 
tender  as  his  pretty  looks  had  suggested. 

"  How  happy  and  fortunate  we  are,"  Macrinus  wrote 
to  his  family,  when  his  accession  was  secured.     In  little 

210 


IN  THE   DAYS  OF  ELAGABALUS  211 

more  than  a  year  he  would  be  flying  over  the  hills  of 
Asia  Minor,  and  he  and  his  handsome  boy  would  be  cruelly 
put  to  death.  He  set  out  at  once,  with  great  display, 
against  the  unruly  Parthians.  But  he  soon  purchased 
an  ignoble  peace  from  them,  and  repaired  to  the  banquets 
and  pleasures  of  Antioch.  Anxious  as  he  was  about  his 
position,  he  made  the  fatal  error  of  keeping  the  troops 
in  camp,  and  there  soon  passed  from  legion  to  legion  an 
ominous  murmur.  The  soldiers  contrasted  his  luxury  with 
Caracalla's  sharing  of  their  march  and  their  cheese,  and 
chafed  under  the  discipline  he  rightly  sought  to  enforce. 
The  rumour  spread,  too,  that  Macrinus  had  given  offence 
to  the  Senate  ;  and  that  a  mule  had  borne  a  mule  at  Rome, 
and  a  sow  had  given  birth  to  a  little  pig  with  two  heads  and 
eight  feet.  The  apparition  of  a  comet  and  an  eclipse  of  the 
sun  made  it  yet  more  certain  that  something  was  going 
to  happen,  and  confirmed  those  who  were  preparing  the 
event.  In  the  month  of  May  Macrinus  heard  that  a  boy 
of  fourteen,  supported  by  three  women  and  a  eunuch,  had 
claimed  the  throne,  and  seduced  some  troops.  He  sent  a 
general,  with  a  moderate  force,  to  bring  him  the  boy's  head. 
In  a  week  or  two  a  messenger  returned  with  a  head — his 
general's  head.  He  roused  himself  from  the  drowsy  luxury 
of  Antioch,  and  set  out  with  his  army. 

The  three  women  were,  as  I  have  said,  Julia  Maesa, 
sister  of  Julia  Domna,  and  her  daughters,  Soaemias  and 
Mamaea.  At  the  death  of  Julia  Domna  they  had  retired 
to  the  ancestral  home  at  Emesa,  in  Syria,  but  with  a  very 
considerable  fortune,  which  Maesa  had  gathered  at  the 
court  of  Severus  and  Caracalla.  The  two  daughters  seem 
to  have  lost  their  husbands,  though  each  had  a  son. 
Soaemias  had  a  child  of  fourteen  years,  named  Varius 
Avitus   Bassianus,  a  strikingly  pretty  boy.^      His  cousin 

'  It  is  difBcult  to  imagine  Elagabalus  beginning  his  appalling  career  at 
such  an  age,  and  Gibbon,  calculating  from  the  age  given  to  Alexander  Severus 
in  the  "  Historia  Augusta  "  at  the  time  of  his  death,  changes  the  age  to  seven- 
teen. But  the  "  Historia  Augusta  "  is  very  commonly  wrong  in  the  ages  it 
ascribes  to  Emperors  at  their  death.  Professor  Bury  admits  that  Gibbon  is 
probably  wrong,  and  we  may  follow  Herodian. 


212  THE  EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

Alexianus  was  three  or  four  years  younger.  Avitus  was 
therefore  clothed  with  the  dignity  of  priest  of  the  temple, 
which  seems  to  have  been  hereditary,  and  the  little  group 
resumed  the  life  they  had  quitted,  twenty  years  before,  to 
dwell  in  the  Imperial  court.  Maesa,  and  probably  Sosemias, 
found  this  rustic  tranquillity  unendurable,  and  followed 
political  events  with  interest.  The  one  retained  dreams 
of  Imperial  power,  the  other  of  Imperial  indulgence.  Their 
chief  servant  was  a  clever  eunuch,  Gannys  by  name,  who 
is  strangely  described  by  Dio  as  '•  practically  living  with 
Soaemias."  A  geographical  accident  brought  their  vague 
dreams  to  a  practical  issue. 

Near  the  little  town  of  Emesa  was  a  camp  of  the  Roman 
soldiers.  Cosmopolitan  as  they  now  were  in  race  and 
religion,  and  fretting  at  their  detention  in  the  dull  country- 
side, the  soldiers  took  a  close  interest  in  the  temple  of 
the  strange  god.  The  great  wealth  and  fame  of  the  shrine, 
the  peculiar  nature  of  its  deity  and  its  ritual,  often  attracted 
them,  and  the  knowledge  that  these  rich  and  handsome 
women  of  the  priestly  family  had  been  so  closely  connected 
with  their  popular  Caracalla  increased  the  interest.  But 
the  chief  feature  that  drew  their  attention  was  the  beauty 
of  the  young  high-priest.  The  soft  and  feminine  delicacy 
of  his  form  and  features  was  enhanced  by  a  long  robe  of 
Imperial  purple,  fringed  with  gold,  and  a  crown  that  flashed 
back  the  rays  of  the  Syrian  sun  from  its  precious  gems. 
The  romance  was  not  lessened  when  they  reflected  that 
the  great  Severus  had  often  fondled  this  boy  in  his  arms, 
and  that  he  might  have  inherited  the  throne.  The  women, 
or  their  servants,  now  doubled  the  interest  of  the  soldiers 
by  insinuating  a  whisper  that  he  was  the  son  of  their 
Caracalla,  and  when  Maesa's  gold  began  to  pass  freely 
into  their  purses,  they  contrived  to  see  a  resemblance 
to  the  dark  and  repellent  features  of  the  late  Emperor  in 
the  girlish  beauty  of  the  boy.  Soaemias  had  no  difficulty 
in  paying  the  poor  price  of  her  reputation  for  a  return  to 
court.     Lampridius  bluntly  calls  her  a  meretrix. 

On  the  night  of  May  15th,  218,  the  three  women  and 


IN  THE   DAYS  OF  ELAGABALUS  213 

the  two   boys   were   transferred   to   the   camp.      Maesa's 
fortune  went  with  them,  as  the  price   of  Empire,  and  on 
the  following  day  the  soldiers  announced  that  Bassianus, 
as  he  was  now  called,   was   Emperor.      The  camp  was 
fortified,  and  in  a  few  days  Macrinus's  general,  Julianus, 
appeared   before   it   with   his   troops.     Their  companions 
in  the  camp  exhibited  the  young  son  of  Caracalla  on  the 
rampart,  and,  as  they  exhibited  also  the  bags  of  Maesa's 
gold,  they  convinced  and  seduced  the  assailants.    Julianus's 
head   was   cut  off,  and   sent   to  Antioch.     Macrinus   now 
marched  against  them,  and  the  two  armies  met  in  the  inter- 
vening country  on  June  8th.    The  softened  troops  wavered 
on  both  sides,  and  it  looked  as  if  Macrinus  might  win,  when 
Maesa  and   Soaemias   sprang  from   their  chariots    in    the 
rear  of  the  army,  rushed  into  the  ranks,  and  spurred  their 
flagging  followers   on   to   victory.      Macrinus   fled,   in   an 
ignominious  disguise,  across  the  hills  and  valleys  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  within  a  few  weeks  Nonia  Celsa  learned  that 
she  had  lost  her  throne,  her  husband,  and  her  boy.    The 
Emperor  of  Rome  was  the  pretty  boy-priest  of  Elagabalus. 
Imperial  power,  however,  meant  to  the  Syrian  youth 
an  unrestrained  indulgence  of  his  sensual  dreams,  not  a 
grave  concern  with  the  affairs   of  a   mighty  people.     He 
dallied  in  the  East,  and   willingly  left   his   duties  to   his 
grandmother,   while   he  devoted    himself   entirely  to  his 
rights.     He  gathered  about  him  the  ignoble  company  of 
ministers  to  lust  which  the  cities  of  Asia  Minor  were  at 
all   times   ready   to   supply,  and   there  was   no   depth   or 
eccentricity  of  vice  in  Antioch  or  Nicomedia  which   he 
did  not  explore.     Before  the  end  of  that  year  the  boy's 
nature  was  completely  perverted,   and   the  last   trace   of 
masculinity  eliminated   from   it.     Maesa  was  alarmed,  for 
the  cities  of  the  East  were  wont  to  talk  freely  of  the  vices 
they   implanted    or   cultivated   in   their  visitors,   and   the 
sentiment  of  Rome  could  not  be  ignored.     But  Bassianus 
laughed   at    her    timidity,   and    lingered    throughout    the 
following  winter  in  the  voluptuous  chambers  of  Nicomedia. 
As  to  this  Roman  Senate,  of  which  she  spoke,  he  sent  the 


214  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

grey-beards  a  painting  of  himself  in  his  flowing  sacerdotal 
robes  and  womanly  jewels,  to  be  placed  over  the  altar 
of  Victory  in  their  meeting-place. 

In  the  following  spring  he  condescended  to  visit  the 
capital  of  his  Empire.  Rome  had  received  many  a  strange 
procession  during  the  centuries  of  its  Imperial  expansion, 
but  no  spectacle  had  aroused  so  much  curiosity  as  the 
arrival  of  the  young  monarch  on  whose  picture  the 
Senators  had  gazed  with  bewilderment.  The  original  was 
even  more  extraordinary  than  the  portrayal.  For  the  entry 
into  Rome  the  young  priest-Emperor  stained  his  cheeks 
with  vermilion,  and  artfully  enhanced  the  brilliance  of  his 
eyes,  like  a  Syrian  courtesan  or  an  actress.  He  wore  his 
loose  robes  of  purple  silk  trimmed  with  gold,  his  delicate 
arms  were  encircled  with  costly  bracelets  and  his  white 
neck  with  a  string  of  pearls,  and  a  tiara  of  successive 
crowns,  flashing  with  jewels,  surmounted  his  strange  figure. 
And,  as  the  alternative  and  real  power  in  administration, 
the  Romans  regarded  with  anxiety  the  two  women  who 
rode  with  him — the  grave  and  dignified  Maesa,  and  the 
richly  sensuous  and  evil-famed  Soaemias.  There  is  in 
the  Vatican  Museum  a  statue  of  the  mother  of  Elagabalus 
as  she  appeared  at  this  time.  She  has  chosen  to  be 
portrayed  in  the  costume,  or  lack  of  costume,  of  Venus  ; 
and  the  voluptuous  body  and  soft  round  limbs,  the  low 
forehead,  thick  lips,  and  large  nose,  combined  with  the  hard 
and  shameless  expression,  reconcile  us  to  the  coarsest 
epithets  the  historians  have  attached  to  her  memory. 

To  the  horror  of  the  Senate  this  woman  was  at  once 
associated  with  him  in  a  character  that  no  Empress,  or 
no  woman,  had  ever  assumed  in  the  long  history  of  Rome. 
At  his  first  visit  to  the  Senate  the  Emperor  demanded 
that  she  should  be  invited  to  sit  by  his  side  and  listen  to 
their  deliberations.  Even  Livia  had  been  content  to  listen 
behind  the  decent  shade  of  a  curtain.  Soaemias,  however, 
had  not  the  wit  or  seriousness  to  interfere  in  any  way. 
She  was  appointed  president  of  the  Senaculum,  or  "  Little 
Senate,"  of  women,  which  Sabina  had  founded,  and  Julia  re- 


JULIA   M/ESA 

BUST    IN    THE   CAPITOI.INE    MUSEUM,    ROME 


IN  THE   DAYS   OF  ELAGABALUS  215 

stored,  in  the  Forum  of  Trajan ;  and  she  found  an  easier  and 
more  congenial  occupation  in  controlling  the  grave  delibera- 
tions of  the  matrons  of  Rome  on  questions  of  etiquette, 
precedence,  costume,  and  jewellery.  It  was  left  to  Maesa 
to  wield  the  political  power,  and  she  did  so  with  sobriety 
and  judgment.  Unhappily,  the  Emperor  was  more  willing 
to  listen  to  the  easier  counsels  of  his  mother  than  to  Maesa, 
and  he  began  at  once  to  entertain  or  disgust  Rome  with 
the  appalling  license  which  makes  his  short  reign  an  in- 
describable nightmare. 

He  had  brought  from  Emesa  the  celestial  stone,  the 
emblem  of  Ela-gabal,  to  which  all  his  prosperity  was 
due,  and  his  first  care  was  to  provide  the  god  with  a 
worthy  home.  A  magnificent  temple  was  raised  to  it, 
and  the  stone,  encrusted  with  gems,  was  borne  to  it  on 
a  chariot  drawn  by  six  white  horses,  the  Emperor  walking 
backwards  before  it  in  an  ecstasy  of  adoration.  In  the 
temple  a  number  of  altars  were  set  up,  and  rivers  of 
blood — even  the  blood  of  children — were  poured  out  on 
them  ;  while  the  Emperor  and  his  family  croned  the  barbaric 
chants  of  primitive  Syria,  and  the  highest  dignitaries  of 
Rome  stood  in  silent  respect.  As  the  earlier  officials  were 
soon  replaced  by  men  of  infamy,  chosen,  very  frequently, 
on  a  qualification  that  one  may  not  describe,  we  need  pay 
little  attention  to  their  feelings.  If  we  suppose  that  the 
Emperor,  or  Elagabalus,  as  he  now  called  himself,  was 
aware  that  the  conical  stone  was  really  a  phallic  emblem, 
we  may  find  a  clue  to  some  of  the  stranger  vagaries  of 
his  erotomania. 

Rome  had  long  been  accustomed  to  the  barbarism  of 
the  more  ancient  Oriental  cults,  and  had  indeed  taken  a 
willing  part  in  the  orgiastic  processions  of  the  mysterious 
Mother  of  the  Gods,  whenever  their  rulers  permitted 
them.  But  the  security  of  the  Empire  seemed  to  them 
in  danger  when  Elagabalus  went  on  to  place  every  other 
idol  in  a  position  of  subordinate  respect  in  the  temple  of 
his  fetich.  Jupiter,  Juno,  Venus,  and  Mars,  were  not  at 
that  time  favoured  very  widely  with  a  literal  belief;  nor 


2i6  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

were  the  Romans  concerned  when  he  stole  the  Astarte 
of  the  Carthaginians,  and  married  her,  in  a  magnificent 
festival,  to  his  lonely  deity.  The  temples  and  cults  of 
Rome  were  like  the  temples  and  cults  of  modern  Japan. 
They  contributed  to  the  gaiety  of  life.  But  if  there  was 
little  sincere  polytheism  at  Rome — the  educated  world 
was  divided  between  an  Epicurean  Agnosticism  and  an 
eclectic  Monotheism — there  was  much  superstition,  and  few 
could  regard  without  concern  a  desecration  of  the  ancient 
Palladium,  or  statue  in  the  temple  of  Vesta,  to  which  the 
fortune  of  the  city  was  peculiarly  attached,  and  other 
ancient  emblems.  Elagabalus  despotically  overrode  their 
feelings.  He  broke  forcibly  into  the  home  of  the  Vestal 
Virgins,  and  bore  away  the  sacred  Palladium  ;  since  we 
may  regard  the  later  boast  of  the  Virgins,  that  they  cheated 
him  with  a  substituted  statue,  as  insincere. 

Of  the  Empresses  whom  he  made  by  marriage  we 
have  little  knowledge.  In  less  than  three  years  he  married, 
and  unmarried,  either  four  or  five  women.  The  first  was 
Julia  Cornelia  Paula,  a  woman  of  very  distinguished 
family  and,  if  we  may  trust  the  bust  in  the  Louvre,  a 
woman  of  dignity,  refinement,  and  some  strength  of 
character.  We  may  see  the  action  of  Maesa  in  the  choice. 
A  few  months  later  he  divorced  her  and,  to  the  horror 
of  Rome,  married  one  of  the  Vestal  Virgins.  Possibly  the 
beauty  of  Julia  Aquilia  Severa  had  caught  his  fancy  when 
he  broke  into  their  sacred  enclosure.  The  Senators  were 
deeply  concerned  at  this  sacrilege,  for  the  fate  of  Rome 
was  still  closely  connected  with  the  integrity  of  the  noble 
virgins  who  tended  the  undying  fire  before  the  altar  of 
Vesta.  Elagabalus,  who,  it  was  generally  known,  had  no 
hope  of  progeny,  brazenly  argued  with  the  Senate  that 
he  was  consulting  the  future  of  the  State,  since  a  union 
of  priest  and  priestess  gave  promise  of  a  family  of  divine 
children.  In  any  case,  he  said,  he  was  a  maker,  not  an 
observer,  of  laws  ;  and  he  established  Severa  in  his  palace. 
The  coins  give  her  the  title  of  Augusta. 

His  roving  eye  soon  afterwards  was  attracted   by  the 


IN  THE   DAYS   OF  ELAGABALUS  217 

charms  of  Annia  Faustina,  the  great-granddaughter  of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  The  portrait-bust  of  her  in  the  Capitol 
Museum  has  a  round  full  face  of  great  beauty  and  an 
expression  of  sweetness  and  modesty.  She  seems  to 
have  escaped  the  taint  of  the  Faustinae.  She  was  married 
to  Pomponius  Bassus,  and  Elagabalus  released  her  by  the 
familiar  device  of  executing  her  husband,  and  transferred 
her,  leaving  no  time  for  mourning,  to  the  palace.  Her 
beauty  seems  to  have  been  too  tempered  with  refinement 
to  engage  his  affections  long.  She  was  dismissed,  and 
replaced  by  some  unknown  victim.  Then  Elagabalus 
returned  to  his  priestess  of  Vesta.  In  all,  he  seems  to 
have  married  four  women  in  three  years,  not  counting 
Severa,  whose  marriage  Dio  does  not  seem  to  regard  as 
valid. 

Severa  was  the  chief  associate  of  his  life  in  the  palace, 
and  it  is  quite  impossible  to  convey  an  impression  of  the 
sordid  scenes  into  which  she  had  passed  from  the  austere 
sanctuary  of  Vesta.  Twelve  condensed  pages  of  the 
"  Historia  Augusta"  are  occupied  with  his  enormities,  and 
at  the  close  of  what  is  probably  the  most  appalling  picture 
of  unrestrained  license  in  any  literature — even  if  we  admit 
exaggeration — Lampridius  assures  us  that  he  has,  from  a 
feeling  of  modesty,  omitted  the  worst  details.  It  would 
seem  that  the  human  imagination,  in  its  most  diseased 
condition,  could  devise  nothing  lower.  We  do  not  know 
whether  Severa  was  an  Octavia  or  a  Poppaea,  but  the  cir- 
cumstance that  she  consented  to  live  is  grave  enough.  In 
that  vast  colony  of  vice,  to  which  a  system  of  pandars, 
spread  over  the  Empire,  dispatched  every  man  who  had 
some  special  physical  or  moral  feature  to  fit  him  for  the 
orgies,  no  decent  woman  would  have  clung  to  mortality. 
A  Caesonia  or  a  Marcia  might  laugh  when  Elagabalus 
returned  at  night,  dressed  as  a  common  female  tavern- 
keeper,  from  the  low  wine-shops  in  which  he  had  been 
rioting — might  even  smile  when  she  saw  Elagabalus's 
"  husband,"  a  burly  slave,  beating  and  bruising  him  for  his 
infidelity,  or  when  she  heard  at  night  the  rattle  of  the 


2i8  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

golden  rings  and  the  shameful  appeal  of  the  new  Messalina 
behind  his  curtain — but  Severa  was  of  noble  birth,  the 
daughter  of  a  man  who  had  twice  been  consul. 

One  of  the  unpardonable  sins  of  Rome  was  that  it 
hesitated  so  long  to  assassinate  some  of  its  rulers.  The 
very  excesses  of  Elagabalus  protected  him  for  a  long 
time,  as  he  urged  the  people  to  share  or  imitate  his 
pleasures.  No  screen  was  drawn  about  his  vices.  He 
would  discuss  them  with  the  Senate,  or  collect  all  the 
meretrices  of  Rome  in  a  hall,  and  address  them  on  those 
various  schemes  of  vice  which  we  find  to-day  depicted 
on  the  walls  of  the  lupanar  in  Pompeii.  He  would  invite 
the  common  folk  to  come  and  drink  with  him  at  the  palace, 
where  they  might  see  the  furniture  of  solid  silver,  the  beds 
loaded  with  roses  and  hyacinths,  the  swimming-baths  of 
perfume,  the  gold  dust  strewn  in  the  colonnades,  the  paths 
paved  with  porphyry.  He  provided  for  them  the  spectacle 
of  naval  battles  in  lakes  of  wine,  and  a  mountain  of  snow, 
brought  from  the  remote  mountains,  in  the  middle  of 
summer.  But  his  chief  device  for  cajoling  the  citizens 
was  to  distribute  tickets,  as  for  a  lottery,  and  see  them 
press  for  the  sight  of  the  gifts  corresponding  to  their 
numbers.  You  might  get  ten  eggs  or  ten  ostriches,  ten 
flies  or  ten  camels,  ten  toy  balloons  or  ten  pounds  of  gold  ; 
and  the  mania  grew  until  your  chance  lay  between  a  dead 
dog,  a  slave,  a  richly  caparisoned  horse,  a  chariot,  or  a 
hundred  pounds  of  gold.  At  times  he  would  invite  a 
crowd  to  dinner,  and  smother  them,  with  fatal  effect  to 
some,  under  a  thick  shower  of  flowers ;  or  seat  them  on 
inflated  bags,  which  slaves  would  deflate  in  the  middle 
of  the  banquet ;  or  have  them  borne  away  intoxicated  at 
the  end,  to  find  themselves  in  the  morning  sleeping  with 
bears  or  lions. 

The  frivolous  Romans  were  so  much  entertained  by 
these  vagaries  that  they  overlooked  his  personal  luxury, 
and  made  no  inquiry  into  the  state  of  the  treasury.  No 
dinner  could  be  placed  before  him  that  had  not  cost  thirty 
pounds  of  silver.     Robed  in  a  tunic  of  pure  gold  or  pure 


IN  THE   DAYS   OF  ELAGABALUS  219 

Chinese  silk,  sitting  under  perfumed  lamps,  amid  masses 
of  the  choicest  blooms,  he  picked  delicately  at  the  tongues 
of  larks  and  peacocks,  the  brains  of  thrushes,  the  eggs  of 
pheasants,  the  heads  of  parrots,  or  the  heels  of  camels. 
He  fed  his  horses  with  choice  grapes  and  his  lions  with 
pheasants.  His  chariots  were  of  gold  only,  studded  with 
gems,  and  they  were  drawn  through  the  streets  by  strings 
of  nude  women,  or  by  stags.  Delicate  in  every  detail, 
he  had  cords  of  silk  and  swords  of  gold  prepared  for 
inflicting  death  on  himself  in  case  of  need.  He  little  knew 
that  he  would  die  in  the  latrine  of  the  soldiers'  camp. 

Soaemias  seems  to  have  enjoyed  this  orgiastic  life,  but 
the  more  prudent  Maesa  was  concerned.  Finding  that 
remonstrances  were  quite  useless,  she  cunningly  persuaded 
Elagabalus  to  associate  his  cousin  with  him  in  the  govern- 
ment. Alexander — as  Alexianus  had  now  been  named — 
was  three  or  four  years  younger  than  the  Emperor,  and  did 
not  share  his  disease.  His  mother,  Mamaea,  inherited  the 
prudence  and  sobriety  of  Maesa,  and  guarded  her  boy  from 
the  contamination  with  the  utmost  care.  His  excellent 
disposition  ensured  the  success  of  their  plan,  and  Elagabalus 
began  to  perceive  that  the  younger  boy  was  winning  a 
dangerous  popularity.  It  is  said  that  a  judicious  distribu- 
tion of  money  by  Mamaea  fostered  the  growing  esteem  for 
him,  especially  among  the  soldiers. 

From  suspicion  Elagabalus  passed  to  hatred,  and  from 
hatred  to  a  design  on  his  cousin's  life.  Mamaea  secured 
the  favour  of  the  guards  with  great  adroitness,  and  watched 
the  actions  of  Elagabalus.  He  first,  in  order  to  test  public 
feeling,  sent  word  to  the  Senate  and  the  camp  that  he  had 
withdrawn  the  title  of  Caesar  from  his  cousin ;  and  he 
directed  that  the  boy  should  be  put  to  death  if  this 
announcement  created  no  disorder.  In  the  anxious  hour 
that  followed,  Alexander  waited  in  a  room  of  the  palace 
with  his  trembling  mother  and  Maesa ;  Elagabalus  went 
down  to  the  gardens  to  supervise  the  preparations  for  a 
chariot-race,  and  await  impatiently  the  news  that  his  cousin 
was   dead.     Presently  a  tumultuous  crowd  of  the  guards 


220  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

rushed  across  the  city,  and  burst  into  the  gardens  of  the 
palace.  Elagabalus  fled  to  his  room,  and  covered  himself 
with  a  curtain ;  and  the  soldiers  conveyed  the  two  women 
and  the  boy  in  triumph  to  the  camp,  many  of  them  remain- 
ing in  the  garden  to  threaten  Elagabalus, 

Soaemias,  seeing  the  Empire  slip  from  her,  awoke  to 
energetic  action.  She  hastened  on  foot  to  the  camp,  and 
pleaded  passionately  for  her  son.  They  did  not  wish  to 
take  his  life,  the  guards  said,  but  must  have  a  security 
for  the  life  of  Alexander  and  a  promise  of  reform.  They 
returned  to  the  gardens,  and  the  young  autocrat,  in  his 
purple  silks  and  jewelled  shoes,  had  to  plead  with  the 
rough  soldiers  to  spare  the  favourite  ministers  of  his 
vices.  He  had  filled  the  highest  posts  with  men  whose 
only  qualifications  were  such  that  we  cannot  describe 
them,  and  his  army  of  attendants  were  the  scum  of  the 
Empire.  The  guards  forced  him  to  dismiss  the  most 
obnoxious,  preached  him  an  inglorious  sermon  on  his 
infamies,  and  directed  their  ofiicers  to  watch  over  the  life 
of  Alexander. 

The  swords  of  gold  and  the  cords  of  variegated  silk 
were  not  employed,  but  Elagabalus  could  never  forgive 
the  degradation  he  had  experienced.  He  made  several 
attempts  to  remove  the  obstacles  to  his  design :  sent  the 
Senate  from  Rome,  and  removed  or  executed  several  of 
the  soldiers.  Mamaea  watched  him  assiduously,  and  Maesa 
easily  penetrated  his  secrets.  Not  a  particle  of  food  or 
drink  from  the  Imperial  kitchen  was  allowed  to  pass  the 
lips  of  Alexander.  Rome  knew  that  the  end  was  near.  It 
was  only  a  few  years  since  Bassianus  and  Geta  had  dis- 
graced the  palace  with  a  similar  quarrel.  Maesa  attempted 
in  vain  to  conciliate  them.  On  January  ist,  222,  they  were 
both  to  receive  the  consular  dignity  from  the  Senate. 
She  had  to  threaten  Elagabalus  with  a  fresh  mutiny  of  the 
guards  before  he  would  go. 

Some  ten  weeks  later  the  feud  came  to  a  crisis.  Ela- 
gabalus, to  test  the  soldiers,  sets  afoot  a  rumour  that 
Alexander  is  dead.    The    guards,  believing  the   rumour, 


IN  THE  DAYS   OF  EI.AGABALUS  221 

withdraw  their  contingent  from  the  palace,  and  shut  them- 
selves in  the  camp.  Elagabalus  takes  his  cousin  in  his 
golden  chariot  to  the  camp,  to  show  that  the  rumour  is 
false,  and  loses  control  of  himself  when  the  guards  burst 
into  exclamations  of  joy  at  the  sight  of  Alexander.  Mamaea 
and  Soaemias  come  upon  the  scene,  and  an  angry  alterca- 
tion follows,  each  mother  making  a  wild  appeal  to  the 
soldiers.  Either  there  is  a  division  of  feeling  among  the 
soldiers,  or  some  of  Elagabalus's  ministers  are  present, 
for  swords  are  drawn  and  are  soon  at  work.  Elagabalus 
and  Soaemias,  the  Sybarites,  rush  into  the  latrine  of  the 
camp  for  safety,  and  are  slain  there  by  the  guards.  Their 
bodies  are  disdainfully  thrown  out  to  the  mob,  who  have 
gathered  outside.  The  effeminate  frame  of  the  young 
Emperor,  with  its  soft  limbs  and  large  pendent  breasts, 
and  the  voluptuous  body  of  his  mother,  are  dragged  through 
the  streets,  and,  as  the  opening  of  the  sewer  is  too  narrow 
to  receive  them,  they  are  thrown  into  the  Tiber.  And  the 
cry  of  "Ave,  Imperator!"  rings  in  the  ears  of  Mamaea  and 
her  boy. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

ANOTHER  SYRIAN  EMPRESS 

TO  the  thoughtful  Roman  the  name  of  Syria  must  have 
suggested  an  abyss  of  corruption,  and  the  extension 
of  the  Empire  over  that  swarm  of  Asiatic  peoples 
to  whom  the  name  was  vaguely  applied  must  have  seemed 
an  infelicitous  triumph.  From  the  cities  of  nearer  Asia,  in 
which  the  senile  energies  of  the  older  civilizations  seemed 
incapable  of  rising  above  the  ministry  to  vice,  luxury,  and 
folly,  had  come  the  larger  part  of  the  taint  that  had  infected 
the  blood  of  Rome.  It  is  therefore  singular  to  observe 
that,  of  the  five  women  whom  Syria  placed  on,  or  above, 
the  Roman  throne  in  the  third  century,  four  were  dis- 
tinguished for  sobriety  of  judgment  and  concern  for  the 
common  weal.  The  family  from  which  the  first  four  of 
these  women  sprang  is  variously  described  as  "  humble " 
and  "noble."  We  may  reconcile  the  epithets  by  a  con- 
jecture that  the  family  which  controlled  the  wealthy  shrine 
of  Emesa  descended  from  some  branch  of  the  fallen  nobility 
of  the  East.  Both  Soaemias  and  Mamaea  had  married 
Syrians,  and  we  may  assume  that  Mamaea  had  done  the 
same.  In  those  circumstances,  the  public  spirit  with  which 
Julia  Domna,  Julia  Msesa,  and  Julia  Mamaea  used  the  great 
influence  they  had  is  not  a  little  remarkable. 

Of  the  three— to  whom  we  must  presently  add  a  fourth 
remarkable  woman  of  the  East — Mamaea  had  the  greatest 
power,  and  made  the  best  use  of  it.  She  is  not  blameless, 
as  we  shall  see ;  but  even  if  it  be  true,  as  is  commonly  said, 
that  she  was  unduly  covetous  of  money  and  power,  we 


ANOTHER  SYRIAN  EMPRESS  223 

must  at  least  admit  that  she  employed  them  solely  to  restore 
peace  and  prosperity  to  the  Empire,  and  prolong  the  reign 
of  a  high-principled  ruler. 

Mamaea  entered  upon  her  work  with  all  the  shrewdness 
which   we    have    already  recognized  in   her.     Instead   of 
claiming  the  right,  which  Soaemias  had  enjoyed,  to  sit  in 
the  Senate  and  sign  its  decrees,  she  preserved  a  discreet 
silence  when   the   Senate  abolished   the    innovation,   and 
poured  out  their  long-repressed  annoyance  on  the  memory 
of  its  author.    The  Senators  ostentatiously  enjoyed  their 
shadow  of  power :  Mamaea  quietly  possessed  the  substance. 
She   provided  the   finest   preceptors  for  the  education  of 
her  son  Alexander,  who  was  in  his  fourteenth  year,  and 
selected  sixteen  of  the  most  distinguished  Senators  and 
lawyers  as  a  Council  of  State.     With  these   she  worked 
energetically  and  harmoniously  for  the  renovation  of  the 
Empire.    The  palace  was  purged   of  the  quaint  and  the 
loathsome  officers  that  she  found  in  it,  Rome  was  relieved 
of  Ela-gabal  and  his  ghastly  ritual,  competent  officials  were 
substituted  for  the  ministers  to  the  lust  of  the  late  Emperor, 
and  the  heavier  taxes   of  the  previous  two   reigns  were 
remitted  or  lessened.     In  this  work,  which  extends  over 
the  thirteen  years  of  the  reign  of  Alexander  Severus,  Maesa 
had  little  part.     She  died  soon  after  the  beginning  of  this 
happier  era,  and  Mamaea  alone  guided  the  willing  hands 
of  her  son.     It   is   remarked   by  all   the  authorities   that 
Alexander  was  singularly  subservient  to  his  mother. 

Troops  and  Senate  had  been  happily  united  in  the 
elevation  of  Alexander,  and  all  the  epithets  of  Imperial 
dignity  were  at  once  conferred  on  him.  The  title  of 
Severus  he  accepted  from  the  soldiers,  but  he  declined 
the  name  of  Antoninus,  which  the  Senate  pressed  on  him, 
since  that  revered  name  had  been  so  impiously  disgraced 
by  his  predecessors.  He  spontaneously  discarded  the 
womanly  silks  and  jewels  of  his  cousin,  covered  the  rough 
shirts  of  Severus  with  the  Roman  toga,  and  gave  equal 
attention  to  manly  exercises,  the  lessons  of  his  tutors,  and 
the  wise  counsels  of  his  mother.      He  thus  grew  into  a 


224  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

handsome  and  virile  youth,  with  the  piercing  black  eyes 
of  his  race,  but  with  a  moderation  of  temper  that  delighted 
his  Stoic  teachers.  When  we  read  the  account  of  his  career 
in  the  "  Historia  Augusta" — an  account  that  might  have 
been  written  by  a  Xenophon  or  a  F^nelon  for  the  edifica- 
tion of  a  young  prince — we  are  tempted  to  feel  that,  either 
the  gossipy  Lampridius  had  for  the  moment  a  more  serious 
object  than  the  entertainment  of  Rome,  or  Alexander 
Severus  was  more  virtuous  than  the  circumstances  re- 
quired. 

Mamaea  is  described  by  the  same  writer  as  "  holy,  but 
avaricious."  Avarice  was  a  not  inopportune  vice.  Ela- 
gabalus  had  squandered  the  treasury  on  his  follies ;  the 
troops,  encouraged  by  him  and  by  Caracalla,  were  becoming 
more  and  more  exacting ;  while  Mamaea  had,  by  lightening 
the  taxes,  spared  the  Empire  a  substantial  share  of  its 
contribution.  In  these  circumstances  it  was  prudent  to 
cultivate  a  close  concern  about  money,  and  no  single  writer 
ventures  to  say  that  the  Empress— the  Senate  had  at  once 
entitled  her  Augusta — spent  much  on  her  personal  service 
or  pleasure.  It  is  said  that  her  zeal  for  the  accumulation 
of  money  was  carried  to  a  stage  of  offensiveness.  But  it 
was  necessary  for  her  murderers  to  detect  or  invent  some 
vice  in  extenuation  of  their  foul  deed,  and  the  position  in 
which  the  charge  is  found  in  the  historians  reveals  that  it 
came  from  that  tainted  source.  "  Avarice  "  means  little 
more  than  that  she  would  not  yield  to  the  improper 
demands  of  a  demoralized  army. 

When  we  reflect  that  both  her  parents  were  Syrians, 
we  notice  with  some  surprise  that  the  portrait-bust  of 
Mamaea  has  a  singularly  Roman  face ;  and  in  her  strength, 
solidity,  and  sobriety  she  recalls  the  old  Roman  type  rather 
than  accords  with  the  general  conception  of  a  Syrian 
woman.  She  had  the  defect  of  her  type,  and  an  incident 
that  occurred  early  in  her  reign  is  regarded  as  a  grave 
betrayal  of  it.  It  is  not  at  all  clear,  however,  that  Mamaea 
acted  with  the  "jealous  cruelty  "  which  Gibbon  sees  in  her 
conduct.    For  the  wife  of  her  son  she  had  chosen  Sallustia 


ANOTHER   SYRIAN   EMPRESS  225 

Barbia  Orbiana — we  find  the  name  on  coins,  though  the 
historians  do  not  give  it — daughter  of  the  Senator 
Sallustius  Macrinus.  Alexander,  not  an  exacting  husband, 
seems  to  have  lived  happily  with  his  bride,  and  her  father 
was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Caesar.  Before  long,  however, 
we  find  Macrinus  executed  on  a  charge  of  treason,  and  his 
daughter  banished  to  Africa. 

Gibbon  believes,  on  the  authority  of  Dio,  that  this  was 
entirely  due  to  Mamaea's  unwillingness  to  share  the  power 
and  the  affection  of  her  son  with  another  woman.  The 
word  of  an  historian  and  a  member  of  the  Senate,  whom 
we  may  almost  describe  as  an  eye-witness,  must  assuredly 
have  weight,  yet  we  cannot  ignore  the  assertion  of  the 
other  authorities  that  Macrinus  was  betrayed  into  acts 
which  easily  bore  the  construction  of  treason.  We  may 
recall  Merivale's  just  warning,  on  another  occasion,  that 
a  contemporary  Roman  writer  is  particularly  apt  to  re- 
produce the  unsubstantial  gossip  of  his  day.  Herodian, 
who  nevertheless  believes  that  Macrinus  had  no  treasonable 
intention,  says  that  Mamaea  was  so  cruel  to  Orbiana  that 
the  girl  went  in  tears  to  her  father,  and  he  repaired  to  the 
Praetorian  camp  with  bitter  complaints  against  Mamaea. 
Such  a  course  very  strongly  suggests  a  treasonable  design. 
The  troops,  chafing  under  the  rule  of  Mamaea  and  her  son, 
whom  they  eventually  murdered,  were  notoriously  dis- 
contented ;  and  flying  to  the  camp  was  commonly  the  first 
overt  act  in  a  plot  to  displace  the  ruling  Emperor.  When 
we  further  find  that  Lampridius  ("  Historia  Augusta")  says, 
on  the  authority  of  Dexippus,  an  Athenian  writer  of  the 
succeeding  generation,  that  Macrinus  was  expressly  at- 
tempting to  replace  Alexander,  we  must  at  least  suspend 
our  censures.  We  know  nothing  of  the  character  of 
Macrinus  and  his  daughter,  and  are  therefore  unable  to 
say  hov/  far  Mamaea's  interpretation  of  their  conduct  may 
have  been  influenced  by  her  feelings,  and  how  far  her 
harsh  treatment  of  Orbiana  may  have  been  justified. 

The  charge  against  her  is  further  weakened  by  a 
circumstance  that  Gibbon  has  overlooked.  Lampridius 
^5 


226  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

says  that  Alexander  married  Memnia,  the  daughter  of  the 
ex-consul  Sulpicius,  and  speaks  incidentally  of  "  his  boys." 
It  seems,  then,  that  the  jealousy  of  Mamaea  did  not  prevent 
Alexander  from  marrying  again,  and  that  Memnia  must 
have  shared  the  palace  with  the  Empress-mother  for  a 
number  of  years.  Of  her  character  we  know  nothing, 
except  that,  together  with  Mamaea,  she  remonstrated  with 
Alexander  on  account  of  his  excessive  affability  with  his 
subjects.  No  guards,  it  seems,  barred  the  entrance  of  the 
palace  against  them.  The  austere  character  of  the  life 
which  adorned  it  was  the  only  test  of  the  integrity  of  those 
who  approached  him.  After  a  day  of  exertion  he  would 
spend  the  evening  in  the  refining  enjoyment  of  letters  or 
the  exercise  of  his  musical  skill.  He  sang  and  played  well, 
but  guarded  his  Imperial  dignity  by  admitting  none  to  hear 
him  except  his  young  sons.  Actors  and  gladiators  he 
avoided,  nor  would  he  spend  much  in  exhibiting  their 
skill  to  the  public.  His  one  luxury  was  a  remarkable 
collection  of  birds,  which  included  20,000  doves ;  his  one 
weakness  a  delight  in  the  puny  and  almost  bloodless 
combats  of  partridges,  kittens,  or  pups.  His  baths  were  of 
cold  water,  and  his  table  was  regulated  by  the  most  minute 
directions,  admitting  even  the  slight  luxury  of  a  goose  only 
on  festive  occasions.  When  a  string  of  costly  pearls  was 
presented  to  Memnia,  he  ordered  that  they  should  be  sold, 
and,  when  no  purchaser  could  be  found  in  Rome,  he  hung 
them  upon  the  statue  of  Venus  in  the  temple. 

From  such  details  as  these  we  may  construct  a  picture 
of  the  quiet  and  temperate  life  of  Alexander's  palace,  and 
we  shall  be  disposed  to  think  lightly  of  the  quarrels  which 
are  said  to  have  disturbed  the  relations  of  mother  and  son. 
We  can  hardly  believe  that  one  so  frugal  as  Alexander 
would  profess  much  indignation  at  his  mother's  assiduous 
nursing  of  the  treasury,  nor  can  we  suppose  that  Mamaea 
greatly  resented  the  young  monarch's  accessibility  to  his 
subjects.  Their  frugality,  indeed,  must  not  be  exaggerated, 
as  they  were  generous  in  gifts.  Instead  of  sending  men  to 
extort  their  incomes  from  the  provinces  in  which  they  took 


JULIA    MAM.tA 

BVST    IN    THK    BRITISH    Ml'SFlM 


ANOTHER  SYRIAN   EMPRESS  227 

office,  Alexander  provided  them,  when  they  left  Rome, 
with  an  outfit  so  complete  as  to  include  a  concubine.  His 
deference  to  his  mother  may,  in  fact,  be  said  to  be  the  only 
consistent  charge  against  him.  The  Emperor  Julian  ("  The 
Caesars  ")  insinuates  that  he  showed  a  mediocrity  of  intelli- 
gence in  allowing  his  mother  to  accumulate  money,  instead 
of  prudently  spending  it.  In  a  sense  Julian  was  right; 
though  it  was  not  weakness  of  intelligence,  but  severity  of 
principle,  that  restrained  Alexander  and  Mamaea  from  this 
prudent  expenditure.  Had  they  lavished  their  funds  upon 
the  troops,  the  history  of  Rome  during  the  next  ten  years 
might  have  run  differently. 

From  ;an  earl}'  period  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  the 
attitude  of  the  troops  cast  a  shadow  over  the  palace  and 
the  Empire.  Five  successive  Emperors,  besides  earlier 
ones,  had  received  the  purple  from  the  hands  of  the  troops, 
and  had  been  compelled  either  to  refrain  from  pressing  the 
necessary  discipline  upon  them,  or  to  compensate  the 
rigours  of  discipline  with  excessive  rewards.  The  soldiers 
became  conscious  of  their  power,  and  sufficiently  demoral- 
ized to  abuse  it.  Less  exercise  and  more  pay  led  to  a 
lamentable  enervation;  and  the  filling  of  the  ranks  from 
the  more  distant  peoples,  who  had  not  contributed  to  the 
making  of  the  Empire  and  were  insensible  to  its  prestige, 
dissolved  in  the  legions  the  old  spirit  of  nationality.  From 
the  lonely  forests,  the  frozen  hills,  or  the  blistering  deserts 
of  the  frontiers,  they  sought  ever  to  be  withdrawn  to  the 
comforts  and  pleasures  of  the  cities.  And  when  they  found 
that  a  fresh  eff'ort  was  being  made  to  restrict  their  indul- 
gences and  restore  the  earlier  discipline,  when  they  reflected 
that  it  was  only  the  feeble  hands  of  a  woman  and  a  youth 
that  would  enforce  this  austerity,  they  broke  into  sullen 
murmurs  of  discontent. 

The  most  dangerous  part  of  the  army  was  the  extensive 
regiment  of  Praetorian  Guards,  which,  from  its  camp  at  the 
walls,  overshadowed  Rome  with  its  power.  Over  these 
men  Mamaea  had  placed  a  civilian,  the  distinguished  jurist 
Domitius   Ulpianus.      It  was  natural  that  Ulpian  should 


228  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

wish  to  extend  to  the  guards  the  valuable  reforms  which 
he  was  introducing  into  every  department  of  the  State ; 
equally  natural  that  the  soldiers  should  chafe  under  his 
discipline.  The  citizens  took  the  part  of  Ulpian  and 
Mamaea,  who  protected  htm,  and  the  irritation  at  last 
erupted  in  a  bloody  struggle,  in  which  the  populace  fought 
for  three  days  against  the  soldiers  in  the  streets  of  Rome. 
The  quarrel  was  arrested,  but  some  time  afterwards — not 
in  the  fight,  as  Gibbon  says — the  angry  guards  put  an  end 
to  the  reforms  of  Ulpian.  The  statesman  fled  before  them 
into  the  palace,  and  sought  the  protection  of  the  Emperor ; 
but  the  insolent  guards  penetrated  the  sanctuary  of  the 
royal  house  with  drawn  swords,  and  murdered,  in 
Alexander's  presence,  the  most  eminent  and  enlightened  of 
his  counsellors.  The  provincial  troops  were  giving  little 
less  concern.  We  take  our  leave  at  this  stage  of  the 
historian  Dio.  His  work  closes  with  a  mournful  lament 
of  the  condition  of  the  army,  and  a  just  presentiment  of 
impending  calamity.  He  too  had  endeavoured  to  enforce 
discipline  on  the  legions,  and  had  found  the  authority  of 
the  Emperor  insufficient  to  protect  him  from  their  murder- 
ous resentment. 

As  if  this  lamentable  situation  had  been  communicated 
to  the  countless  peoples  who  pressed  eagerly  against  the 
barriers  of  the  Empire,  we  find  a  new  boldness  arising 
amongst  them,  and  a  serious  beginning  of  those  raids  which 
will  at  last  put  the  mighty  power  under  the  heel  of  the 
barbarian.  The  tragedy  of  the  fall  of  Rome  reaches  a  more 
certain  stage.  It  is  a  singular  and  melancholy  reflection 
that  Rome  suffered  most  under  its  most  virtuous  rulers. 
During  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius  the  gods  had  seemed 
to  make  a  war  upon  virtue.  The  new  Stoic  and  his  virtuous 
mother  were  destined  to  see  the  enemies  gathering  fiercely 
about  their  enfeebled  frontiers,  and  to  perish  tragically  in 
a  futile  eff'ort  to  repel  them. 

The  gravest  trouble  arose  in  the  East.  The  ancient 
kingdom  of  Persia  revived,  and  its  vigorous  rulers  deter- 
mined to  regain  the  provinces  which  Greece  and  Rome  had 


I 


ANOTHER   SYRIAN  EMPRESS  229 

shorn  from  their  once  vast  empire.  Alexander,  and  prob- 
ably Mamaea,  went  to  the  East.  If  we  may  believe  the 
panegyrist  of  Alexander  in  the  "  Historia  Augusta,"  he  dis- 
played an  admirable  firmness  in  enforcing  discipline  upon 
the  troops  when  he  arrived  at  Antioch.  Gathering  their 
sullen  and  spoiled  officers  from  the  haunts  of  Antioch  and 
the  licentious  groves  of  the  suburb  of  Daphne,  he  punished 
a  number  of  them  severely,  boldly  confronted  the  drawn 
swords  of  their  demoralized  followers,  and  set  the  legions 
in  motion  against  the  Persians.  But  the  plan  of  the 
campaign  was  injudicious,  and  the  execution  weak.  The 
Romans  suffered  a  heavy  reverse,  and,  before  they  could 
recover  and  check  the  advancing  spirit  of  the  Persians, 
Alexander  was  recalled  to  Europe  with  the  news  that  the 
Germanic  tribes  were  bursting  through  the  northern 
frontier. 

From  the  sunny  lands  of  their  native  East  the  Emperor 
and  his  mother  passed,  in  the  year  234,  to  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine.  They  had  passed  through  Rome,  where  the  citizens 
were  easily  persuaded  to  celebrate  his  triumph  over  the 
Persians.  From  the  Capitol  they  had  carried  the  young 
Emperor  on  their  shoulders  to  his  palace,  his  chariot  with 
its  four  elephants  walking  behind  them,  and  a  great  wave 
of  enthusiasm  went  with  him  as  he  started  for  Gaul.  He 
was  now  in  his  twenty-sixth  year,  and  Mamaea  must  have 
felt  that  he  was  at  the  beginning  of  a  glorious  career. 
They  little  suspected  that  they  were  going  to  meet  their 
deaths  at  the  hands  of  their  own  troops. 

One  of  the  commanders  on  the  Rhine  was  a  gigantic 
and  powerful  barbarian,  half  Goth  and  half  Alan,  of  the 
name  of  Maximinus.  More  than  eight  feet  in  height,  with 
a  thumb  so  large  that  he  wore  his  wife's  bracelet  on  it  as  a 
ring,  the  giant  had  made  his  way  in  the  army  by  sheer 
strength.  A  man  who  could  eat  forty  pounds  of  meat  in  a 
day,  drink  a  proportionate  quantity  of  wine,  and  fell  you 
with  a  finger,  had  the  respect  of  the  barbarian  soldiers. 
Elagabalus  had  repelled  him,  when  he  sought  office,  with 
salacious   questions    about  his  strength ;    Alexander  had 


230  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

eagerly  welcomed  him,  and  put  him  in  command  of  the 
younger  troops.  But  Alexander  had  afterwards  refused 
him  an  honour,  which  Mamaea  desired  to  confer  on  him, 
and  he  probably  heard  this.  He  had  given  his  son  a  good 
Roman  education,  and  Mamaea  thought  that  the  young 
man  was  a  suitable  match  for  her  daughter  Theoclea. 
Alexander  protested  that  his  sister  would  find  the  father- 
in-law  too  boorish,  and  the  young  Maximinus,  now  a  tall, 
handsome,  cultivated,  and  dissolute  noble,  married  a  grand- 
daughter of  Antoninus  Pius,  Junia  Fadilla. 

Whether  this  affront  was  remembered,  or  whether 
Maximinus  acted  from  mere  ambition,  we  cannot  say.  He 
began,  in  any  case,  to  spread  discontent  in  the  army. 
When  Alexander  practically  bought  peace  from  the  bar- 
barians, instead  of  conducting  a  vigorous  campaign  against 
them,  the  whispers  were  changed  into  open  murmuring. 
These  effeminate  Syrians,  it  was  said,  were  unable  to 
endure  the  sturdy  North,  and  were  eager  to  return  to  the 
East.  The  Emperor  was  a  maudlin  youth,  who  could  not 
act  without  his  mother's  permission.  He  had  abandoned 
the  war  against  Persia  in  order  to  return  to  her  side,  and 
he  was  again  sacrificing  the  honour  of  Rome  out  of  regard 
for  her  comfort.  Her  palace  at  Rome  was  full  of  hoarded 
treasure,  while  the  hard-worked  soldiers  were  insufficiently 
paid.  These  complaints  circulated  freely  in  the  camp 
during  the  long  German  winter.  A  lavish  distribution  of 
money  might  have  defeated  the  plot  of  Maximinus,  and  a 
speedy  retirement  to  Rome  would  certainly  have  saved  the 
lives  of  the  Emperor  and  Empress.  But  they  remained  in 
camp  until  the  middle  of  March,  235,  and  then  the  end 
came. 

They  were  at,  or  in  the  neighbourhood  of,  the  small 
frontier  town  which  is  now  known  as  Mainz.  One  morn- 
ing, when  Maximinus  rode  out  to  control  the  exercises,  he 
was  greeted  with  the  name  of  Emperor.  He  feigned  sur- 
prise and  reluctance,  but  the  soldiers — probably  in  pursuance 
of  an  arranged  plan — drew  their  swords,  and  threatened 
to  kill  him  if  he  did  not  take  the  power  from  the  hands  of 


ANOTHER   SYRIAN   EMPRESS  231 

the  effeminate  Syrians.     He  consented,  promised  a  liberal 
donation    in   honour  of  his  accession,   and   said   that  all 
punishments  that  had  been  inflicted  on  the  soldiers  would 
be  remitted.     He  then  led  them  toward  the  tent  of  Alex- 
ander.    The  young  Emperor  came  out  to  meet  them,  and 
made  an  appeal  that  seems  to  have  divided  the  followers  of 
the  usurper,  as  they  went  away  to  their  tents.    At  night, 
however,  the  guards  at  the  Imperial  tent  announced  that 
the  mutinous  troops  were  gathering  about  it.    Alexander 
rushed  out,  and  called  upon  the  loyal  soldiers  to  defend 
him,  making  a  tardy  promise  of  money  and  concessions. 
Many  of  them  came  to  his  side,  but  at  last  the  massive 
figure  of  Maximinus  was  seen  to  approach  at  the  head  of 
a  strong  body  of  troops.    For  the  last  time  the  soldiers 
were  urged  to  choose  between  the  strong,  generous  man 
and  the  avaricious  woman  and  her  child.     Alexander  saw 
the  faithful  few  pass  sullenly  to  the  side  of  Maximinus,  and 
he  returned  to  his  tent.     It  is  said  that  the  last  moments 
were  spent  in  a  violent  quarrel  between  mother  and  son 
about  the  responsibility  for  the  disaster.    There  was  little 
time  for  it.    The  soldiers  of  Maximinus  entered  at  once, 
and  slew  Mamaea,    Alexander,  and  their  few  remaining 
friends. 

A  popular  and  spirited  work  of  the  fourth  century 
described  "  the  deaths  of  the  persecutors,"  or  the  terrible 
fate  which  befell  every  Emperor  who  persecuted  the 
Christians.  No  fate  in  the  terrible  series  of  Imperial 
calamities  was  so  tragic  as  that  of  Alexander,  though  he 
had  favoured  the  Christians,  and  had  cherished  a  bust  of 
Christ  among  those  of  the  heroes  and  sages  in  his  lararium. 
No  other  Empress  inithe  long  line  of  murdered  women  so 
little  deserved  a  violent  death  as  Julia  Mamaea.  During 
the  fourteen  years  of  her  son's  reign  she  had  solely  studied 
the  welfare  of  the  Empire.  The  one  charge  that  her 
murderers  could  bring  against  her  was  that  she  had 
hoarded  money  instead  of  spending  it  on,  or  giving  it  to, 
the  troops.  On  public  buildings,  public  works,  and  civic 
administration  she  had  spent  freely;  she,  or  Alexander, 


232  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

had  even  expended  large  sums  in  providing  surer  susten- 
ance and  more  effective  transport  for  the  troops  themselves. 
The  charge  is  little,  if  at  all,  more  than  a  cowardly  subter- 
fuge. But  it  needed  half-a-dozen  strong  and  unselfish 
generals  to  restore  the  efficiency  and  docility  of  the  legions, 
and  they  were  not  to  be  found.  We  pass  into  a  period  of 
anarchy,  in  which  Emperors  and  Empresses  rise  and  wither 
like  mushrooms,  and  Rome  stumbles  blindly  onward  to- 
wards its  doom.  In  that  period  of  confusion,  when  every 
section  of  the  army  makes  its  Emperor,  only  two  dominant 
personalities  are  found,  and  they  are  two  Empresses  of 
barbaric  origin. 


CHAPTER  XV 

ZENOBIA  AND   VICTORIA 

THE  Emperor  Alexander  Severus  and  his  mother  were 
murdered  in  the  year  235.  We  may  convey  a  just 
impression  of  the  period  that  followed  this  odious 
crime  by  the  brief  observation  that  in  forty  years  nearly 
forty  Emperors  appeared  on  the  darkened  stage  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  that  nearly  every  one  of  them  perished 
at  the  hands  of  Roman  soldiers.  The  anarchy  was  arrested 
for  a  time  when,  in  the  year  270,  the  energetic  Aurelian 
came  to  the  throne.  People  and  Senate  greeted  the  strong 
man  with  genuine  enthusiasm,  and  among  the  cries  of  joy 
or  hope  with  which  the  Senators  hailed  him  we  find  this 
singular  aspiration :  "  Thou  wilt  deliver  us  from  Zenobia 
and  Vitruvia."  It  is  a  piquant  contrast  with  the  disdain 
that  their  fathers  had  had  for  women — a  confession  that 
their  vast  Empire  was  now  dominated  by  two  women, 
without  male  consorts.  But  for  the  timely  appearance 
of  Aurelian  there  was  a  prospect  that  they  would  divide 
the  rule  of  the  world  between  them.  One  was  a  Syrian, 
the  other  a  Gallic,  queen ;  but  each  of  them  bore  the  title 
of  Augusta,  and  they  are  the  next  commanding  personalities 
to  engage  our  interest. 

Many  years  were  to  elapse  between  the  death  of 
Mamaea  and  the  appearance  of  these  two  remarkable 
women,  but  we  need  do  no  more  than  glance  at  the  many 
Empresses  of  an  hour  whose  names  are  hardly  discernible 
in  that  turbulent  era.  The  huge  barbarian  who  had  pur- 
chased the  throne  by  a  brutal  murder  did  not  long  enjoy 

«33 


234  THE  EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

it.  The  Empire  heard  with  horror  and  disdain  that  this 
Thracian  shepherd  had  seized  the  mantle  of  Antoninus 
and  Marcus.  The  people  of  Rome,  in  particular,  recol- 
lected with  alarm  the  contempt  they  had  shown  him  in 
his  earlier  years,  and  offered  prayer  in  the  temples  that 
the  gods  might  divert  his  steps  from  the  south  of  Italy. 
He  met  their  disdain  with  vindictiveness,  and  ruthlessly 
executed  those  who  remembered  his  humble  origin,  or 
whose  wealth  could  add  to  his  revenue.  His  Empress, 
Paulina,  vainly  endeavoured  to  restrain  his  bloody  hand, 
and  succeeded  only  in  drawing  it  upon  herself.^  At  length 
his  exactions  struck  a  spark  of  rebellion  in  Africa,  and  a 
new  Emperor  was  appointed. 

The  African  Proconsul,  Gordianus,  was  an  excellent 
Epicurean  of  the  fine  old  Roman  type.  He  had  wealth, 
culture,  character,  and  taste.  After  filling  the  highest 
offices  at  Rome  with  grace  and  applause,  he  was  now 
quietly  discharging  the  duties  of  Proconsul,  and  relieving 
the  long  hours  of  leisure  with  a  tranquil  enjoyment  of 
letters,  at  the  little  town  of  Thysdrus,  about  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  to  the  south  of  Carthage.  With  him  in 
Africa  was  his  son  Gordianus,  an  epicure  rather  than  an 
Epicurean,  who  solaced  his  exile  from  Rome  with  the 
engaging  company  of  twenty-two  ladies.  Their  respective 
pleasures  were  violently  interrupted  in  the  beginning  of 
the  year  238.  The  father,  a  white-haired  old  man,  with 
broad  red  face,  was  resting  in  his  house  after  his  judicial 
labours,  when  a  band  of  men,  with  blood-smeared  swords, 
burst  into  the  luxurious  villa,  told  him  that  they  had 
rebelled  against  the  tyrant,  and  peremptorily  informed  him 
that  he  was  Emperor.  His  objections  were  unheeded, 
and  he  set  out,  with  misgiving,  for  Carthage.  But  the 
pride  of  the  Carthaginians  was  quickly  chilled  by  the 
news  that  Maximinus's  commander  in  Africa  was  advancing 
against  their  city.  An  armed  force  was  hastily  equipped, 
sent  out  under  the  lead  of  the  younger  Gordian,  and  cut 

'  Ammianus   Marcellinus  tells  us    the    one    fact,    Zosimus    the    other. 
Neither  mentions  her  name,  but  we  learn  it  from  coins. 


ZENOBIA   AND  VICTORIA  235 

to  pieces.    The  younger  Emperor  had  died  on  the  field: 
the  white-haired  old  man  hanged  himself. 

Rome,  meantime,  had  recognized  the  rule  of  the 
Gordians,  and  was  now  throbbing  with  a  just  apprehension 
of  the  vengeance  of  Maximinus.  The  certainty  of  punish- 
ment inspired  it  with  a  measure  of  courage,  and  two  new 
Emperors  were  created — a  vigorous  son  of  the  people, 
Pupienus  Maximus,  and  a  perfumed  representative  of  the 
nobles,  Balbinus.  The  choice  did  not  please  the  people, 
who  beset  the  Senate  with  sticks  and  stones,  so  a  hand- 
some boy,  such  as  Rome  loved,  was  associated  with  them. 
He  was  a  Gordianus,  the  fourteen-year-old  son  of  the  elder 
Gordian's  daughter.  The  city  rang  with  preparations  for 
war,  and  in  the  early  summer  Maximus  led  out  his  weak 
and  apprehensive  force.  The  terrible  Maximinus  and  his 
legions  had  crossed  the  Alps,  and  were  descending  on  the 
plains  of  Italy.  Luckily  for  Rome,  they  met  a  desperate 
resistance  at  Aquileia.  Protected  by  strong  and  well- 
equipped  fortifications,  with  ample  provisions,  the  in- 
habitants repelled  the  fiercest  attacks  of  Maximinus, 
and  jeered  at  him  and  his  dissolute  son  from  the  walls. 
When  the  thongs  of  their  slinging-machines  wore  out, 
the  women  of  Aquileia  gave  their  long  tresses  to  the 
soldiers  to  weave  into  cords.  Maximinus  vented  his 
temper  on  his  own  troops,  and  one  morning  the  besieged 
were  delighted  to  see  the  soldiers  advancing  with  the 
grisly  heads  of  Maximinus  and  his  son  on  the  tips  of 
their  spears. 

Maximus  returned  to  gladden  Rome  with  the  news, 
but  it  was  decreed  that  six  Emperors  were  to  die  that 
year.  The  soldiers,  who  had  had  another  fight  with  the 
Romans  during  the  war,  were  sullen  and  treacherous. 
Balbinus  they  hated  for  his  eff'eminacy,  Maximus  for  his 
rigour.  The  returning  troops  brought  grievances  of  their 
own,  and  it  was  only  the  loyalty  of  the  German  soldiers 
that  held  the  guards  off  the  palace.  Then  there  came  a 
day  when  the  delight  of  the  games  drew  most  of  the 
soldiers  away,  and  the  guards  marched  upon  the  palace. 


236  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Maximus  hastily  ordered  the  loyal  troops  to  be  summoned : 
Balbinus  cancelled  the  order.  Their  relations  had  been 
strained  for  some  time,  and  each  looked  upon  this  sudden 
onslaught  as  a  device  of  the  other.  The  German  troops 
arrived  at  last,  to  find  the  palace  empty,  and  learn  that 
the  three  Emperors  v^ere  in  the  hands  of  the  guards. 
They  started  at  once  for  the  camp,  and  found  the  bleeding 
remains  of  Maximus  and  Balbinus  on  the  street.  With 
them  another  ephemeral  Empress  passes  dimly  before  us. 
The  coins  seem  to  indicate  that  Maximus  was  the  husband 
of  Quintia  Crispilla  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

The  youthful  Gordian  had  been  taken  to  the  camp,  and 
Rome  was  forced  to  acknowledge  him  as  sole  Emperor. 
Intoxicated,  as  so  many  had  been,  by  the  sudden  obtaining 
of  so  vast  a  power,  he  seemed  at  first  inclined  to  the  model 
of  Caligula.  His  uncle's  concubines  and  his  mother's  eunuchs 
were  in  a  fair  way  to  rule  the  ruler.  But  a  wise  tutor, 
Timesitheus,  obtained  a  better  influence  over  him,  and  he 
soberly  chose  his  daughter,  Furia  Sabina  Tranquillina,  as 
his  Empress.  The  whole  prospect  of  the  Empire  changed 
with  his  marriage,  in  241  or  242,  but  the  evil  genius  of 
Rome  intervened  once  more.  The  Persians  had  again 
crossed  the  eastern  frontier,  and  the  Emperor  and  his 
father-in-law  went  to  Asia  to  take  command.  The  war  was 
proceeding  with  success,  when  Timesitheus  contracted  a 
mysterious  illness  and  died.  Gordian  gave  his  command 
to  a  dashing  cavalry  leader  named  Philip — the  man  who, 
we  have  strong  reason  to  think,  had  poisoned  Timesitheus. 
Philip  was  a  handsome  Arab,  whose  father  had  led  a  band 
of  robbers  in  the  desert.  But  the  son  was  astute,  and 
Gordian  suspected  nothing.  Before  many  months  the 
camps  were  simmering  with  discontent.  Pay  was  reduced, 
and  the  troops  were  reluctantly  informed  by  Philip  that  it 
was  the  command  of  the  Emperor.  Regiments  found 
themselves  quartered  in  districts  where  it  was  impossible 
to  obtain  sufficient  food,  and  Philip  begged  them  to  regard 
the  youth  and  military  inexperience  of  Gordian.  The  plot 
culminated  in  the  early  spring  of  244.    Gordian  was  slain, 


MARCIA  OTACILIA   SEVKRA 


ZENOBIA   AND   VICTORIA  237 

and  the  son  of  the  Arab  pillager  of  caravans  received  the 
purple  from  the  soldiers. 

The  new  Empress  of  Rome,  Marcia  Otacilia  Severa, 
attracts  our  attention  for  a  moment  on  account  of  the  claim 
of  the  early  Christian  writers  that  she  belonged  to  the  new 
religion.  The  claim  must  have  had  some  foundation,  but 
the  story  on  which  it  is  generally  based  is  regarded  with 
reserve  by  historians.  St.  Chrysostom  and  others  declare 
that,  when  Philip  and  Otacilia  passed  from  the  Euphrates, 
where  Gordian  had  been  murdered,  to  Antioch,  they  went 
to  the  Christian  church  for  service  on  Easter-eve ;  and  that 
the  bishop  refused  to  admit  them  in  any  other  character 
than  that  of  penitents  expiating  a  foul  crime.  Duruy 
ridicules  the  idea  that  a  bishop  would  have  dared  so  to 
address  an  Emperor  in  public  before  the  middle  of  the 
third  century,  and  it  is  certainly  difficult  to  believe. 
Indeed,  historians  generally  suspect  that,  as  the  story 
itself  implies,  Otacilia  supported  her  husband  in  his 
criminal  ambition,  and  are  reluctant  to  regard  her  as  a 
Christian.  Her  nationality  is  unknown,  and  she  hardly 
emerges  from  the  obscurity  in  which  the  scanty  chronicles 
have  left  the  reign  of  her  husband. 

Let  us  hasten  through  the  pages  of  ghastly  adventure, 
and  come  to  more  interesting  women.  In  the  year  249  the 
troops  in  Moesia  pressed  the  purple  on  one  of  the  ablest 
Roman  generals,  Decius,  and  Philip  was  slain  in  the 
contest  that  followed.  Otacilia  fled  with  her  son  to  the 
Praetorian  camp,  but  the  guards  killed  the  boy  in  her  arms, 
and  sent  her  back  sadly  into  the  common  ranks  from  which 
she  had  so  unhappily  risen.  The  wife  of  Decius,  Herennia 
Etruscilla,  who  is  known  to  us  only  from  coins  and  an 
inscription,  had  little  better  fortune,  since  Decius  perished 
in  a  war  with  the  Goths  two  years  later  (251).  His  son  and 
successor,  Hostilianus,  died  in  the  following  year,  not 
without  a  suspicion  of  crime.  The  colleague  of  Decius  and 
successor  of  his  son,  Gallus,  was  murdered  in  253,  together 
with  his  son  Volusianus,  with  whom  he  had  shared  the 
Empire ;    and    the    rival    and    successor    of   Gallus    was 


238  THE  EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

assassinated  within  four  months.  Then  Valerianus,  an 
aged  and  distinguished  Senator,  came  to  the  throne,  and 
we  begin  to  have  less  fleeting  glimpses  of  the  ladies  of  the 
court,  and  to  make  acquaintance  with  the  two  remarkable 
women  who  will  especially  occupy  us. 

The  elder  Valerian  does  not  long  remain  on  the  stage. 
The  weakness  into  which  the  Empire  had  fallen  was  soon 
observed  by  its  enemies  on  every  side,  and  the  frontier 
provinces  were  being  devastated.  Investing  his  elder  son, 
Gallienus,  with  the  purple.  Valerian  went  to  the  East  to 
oppose  the  Persian  monarch.  Sapor,  who  threatened  the 
whole  of  Roman  Asia,  and  after  a  time  fell,  with  his  army, 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Whether  or  no  it  be  true 
that  the  proud  Persian  used  to  step  on  the  person  of  the 
aged  Emperor  to  mount  his  horse,  it  is  at  least  certain  that 
Valerian  died  among  the  Persians  after  some  years  of 
ignominious  captivity,  and  his  skin,  stuffed  and  padded  to 
the  proportions  of  a  man,  was  long  exhibited  as  the  most 
glorious  of  Sapor's  many  trophies.  There  are  later  writers 
who  assert  that  his  second  wife,  the  Empress  Mariniana, 
was  captured  with  him,  and  brutally  treated  until  she  died, 
but  the  authority  is  slender.  Cohen,  the  great  authority 
on  Roman  coins,  warns  us  that,  though  there  are  coins 
of  a  certain  Mariniana,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  lady  of 
Valerian's  court,  it  is  not  certain  that  she  was  his  wife. 

So  feeble  did  the  Empire  now  become  that  its  enemies 
made  the  most  extensive  and  destructive  inroads.  The 
Persians  advanced  so  far  as  to  sack  Antioch,  the  Franks 
overran  Spain  and  reached  Africa,  the  Alemanni  spread 
terror  in  the  north  of  Italy  and  even  threatened  Rome,  and 
the  Goths  poured  over  Greece  and  Asia  Minor.  Gallienus 
received  the  news  of  each  successive  disaster  with  an 
insipid  joke.  Glittering  with  the  jewels  which  encrusted 
his  belt,  his  dress,  and  even  his  shoes,  his  hair  powdered 
with  gold  dust,  he  dined  from  dishes  of  solid  gold,  in  the 
company  of  his  concubines,  while  his  father  suffered  in 
captivity,  and  his  subjects  groaned  under  the  hardship  of 
invasion,  famine,  pestilence,  and  earthquake.     His  Empress, 


ZENOBIA   AND   VICTORIA  239 

Cornelia  Salonina,  seems  to  have  disdained  his  cowardly 
luxury,  and  she  was  replaced  in  his  affection,  though  not 
in  her  position,  by  a  charming  barbarian.  Attalus,  King 
of  the  Marcomanni,  had  a  beautiful  daughter  named  Pipa 
or  Pipara,  whose  attractiveness  was  brought  to  the  notice 
of  Gallienus.  He  frivolously  submitted  to  the  Senate  that, 
since  Rome  had  so  many  enemies,  it  were  wise  to  disarm 
some  of  them ;  and  he  asked  Attalus  for  the  hand  of  his 
daughter.  The  shrewd  barbarian  stipulated  for  a  large 
part  of  Pannonia,  and  in  return  for  that  valuable  slice  of 
the  Empire  permitted  his  pretty  daughter  to  be  the  concu- 
bine of  the  Roman  Emperor.  She  never  appears  on  the 
coinage,  while  Salonina — whose  grave,  intellectual  features 
suggest  that  she  found  solace  in  culture — remains  Augusta 
to  the  end.  Serviez  finds  an  admirable  trait  of  Salonina's 
character  in  the  punishment  of  a  man  who  had  sold  her 
some  false  jewels.  He  was  sentenced  to  the  lions ;  but 
when  the  terrible  gates  were  opened,  a  harmless  fowl 
flew  out  upon  him,  and  he  was  discharged  with  the  fright. 
The  Roman  historian,  however,  ascribes  the  trick  expressly 
to  Gallienus.^ 

In  the  eight  years  of  Gallienus's  complete  control  of  the 
Empire  (260-268)  it  was  distracted  and  worn  with  misery 
and  anarchy.  The  "  Historia  Augusta  "  estimates  that 
"  thirty  tyrants "  arose  in  that  short  period  to  dispute  the 
power  of  the  corrupt  Gallienus  ;  Gibbon  reduces  the  num- 
ber to  nineteen ;  Duruy  counts  twenty-eight  claimants  to 
the  throne.  There  was,  in  any  case,  a  period  of  profound 
demoralization,  and  as  nearly  all  these  generals  met  with 
a  violent  death,  involved  many  others  in  their  fall,  and  very 
frequently  led  their  troops  in  civil  warfare,  the  drain  on  the 
impoverished  system  was  disastrous.  It  is  amongst  these 
"  thirty  tyrants  "  that  we  find  Zenobia  and  Victoria. 

'  Some  writers  have  conjectured,  from  the  fact  that  the  legend  "  In  Pace  " 
occurs  on  the  coins  of  Salonina  after  her  death,  that  she  became  a  Christian. 
The  phrase  is  not  found  otherwise  except  on  Christian  monuments.  Duruy 
does  not  admit  the  inference,  and  points  out  that  she  built  a  temple  to  the 
goddess  of  the  seasons. 


240  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Zenobia  was  the  wife  of  Odenathus,  the  ruling  man 
in  the  independent  town  of  Palmyra.  The  town,  which 
had  become  an  important  commercial  centre,  lay  on  the 
edge  of  the  Syrian  desert,  and  had  long  maintained  a 
position  of  neutrality  between  the  Romans  on  the  west 
and  the  Parthians  to  the  east.  It  had  the  title  of  a  Roman 
colony,  and  Odenathus  cannot  have  been  more  than  its 
leading  citizen  and,  perhaps,  head  of  its  Senate.  To  this 
little  State  came  the  news  that  the  Roman  Emperor  was 
detained  in  ignominy  by  the  King  of  Persia.  Odenathus 
sent  to  Sapor  a  most  polite  suggestion  that  his  conduct 
was  improper,  and  gilded  his  remonstrance  with  a  caravan 
of  valuable  presents.  The  presents  were  disdainfully 
thrown  into  the  Euphrates,  and  the  blustering  Sapor 
threatened  to  punish  his  insolence.  With  great  boldness 
the  leading  citizen  of  Palmyra  formed  an  irregular  army 
out  of  the  neighbouring  villages  and  the  Arabs,  with  a  few 
Roman  troops,  and  inflicted  a  substantial  reverse  on  the 
Persian  troops.  Gallienus  gracefully  acknowledged  his 
service,  and  extended  the  Imperial  title  to  him  and  his 
wife  Zenobia,  who  became  the  representatives  of  Roman 
power  in  the  East. 

Zenobia  was,  says  Trebellius  Pollio  in  the  "  Historia 
Augusta,"  "  one  of  the  most  noble  of  all  the  women  of  the 
East,  and  also  one  of  the  most  beautiful."  Her  nobility 
rests  upon  her  claim  that  she  descended  from  Cleopatra, 
a  point  that  we  are  unable  to  examine.  The  portrait-bust 
of  her  in  the  Vatican  does  not  so  much  suggest  exceptional 
beauty  as  exceptional  power.  It  is  a  face  of  extraordinary 
strength  and  peculiar  features.  We  can  very  well  imagine 
her,  as  she  is  described  for  us,  riding  out  on  horseback  before 
the  assembled  troops,  her  piercing  black  eyes  aflame  with 
spirit,  a  military  helmet  on  her  head,  and  a  purple  robe, 
embroidered  with  gems,  so  attached  to  her  person  as  to 
leave  naked  the  fine  arm  with  which  she  emphasized  her 
orders.  She  maintained  a  court  of  Persian  magnificence, 
but  was  far  removed  from  Persian  insolence.  She  did  not 
disdain  to  drink  with  her  officers,  and  even  to  endeavour 


ZENOBIA  AND  VICTORIA  241 

to  surpass  them  in  drinking.  Yet  it  is  uniformly  stated 
that  this  remarkable  independence  of  Syrian  ideas  as  to  a 
woman's  position  was  united  with  a  chastity  of  the  most 
sensitive  and  peculiarly  scrupulous  character.  When  we 
add  that  she  was  a  woman  of  exceptional  culture,  spoke 
Latin,  Greelc,  and  Egyptian,  had  so  complete  a  command 
of  the  history  of  the  East  that  she  wrote  a  book  on  it, 
and  enjoyed  the  daily  companionship  of  the  philosopher 
Longinus,  who  was  tutor  to  her  sons,  we  seem  to  have 
exhausted  possible  merit,  and  ventured  into  the  province  of 
legend.  But  we  have  still  to  say  that  her  military  and 
political  ability  was  no  less  than  her  beauty,  her  culture, 
or  her  virtue.  We  shall  see  later  that  the  finest  Emperor 
of  the  age,  Aurelian,  spoke  with  extraordinary  appreciation 
of  her  skill  in  warfare  and  in  polity. 

Even  as  the  wife  of  Odenathus,  Zenobia  was  not  in- 
active. She  is  said  to  have  urged  his  bold  attack  on  Persia, 
and  she  shared  the  longest  marches  of  the  soldiers  when 
the  campaign  began.  But  she  was  soon  the  sole  ruler  of 
the  East,  in  the  interest,  at  first,  of  Rome.  During  the 
Persian  war  Odenathus  quarrelled  with  a  relative  and 
officer,  named  Maeonius,  and  was  only  prevented  by  the 
intercession  of  his  son,  Herodes,  from  putting  him  to 
death.  Herodes  was  the  son  of  Odenathus  by  a  former 
wife,  and  would  be  the  natural  heir  to  his  dignity.  The 
two  sons  whom  Zenobia  had  borne  him,  Timolaus  and 
Herennianus,  were  mere  boys,  but  Zenobia  had  an  older 
son,  Vaballath,  by  a  former  husband.  We  can  understand 
that  there  would  be  some  jealousy  in  the  family,  now  that 
the  Roman  purple  and  a  practical  sovereignty  of  the  East 
were  conferred  on  the  "  king  of  Palmyra."  Zenobia  could 
not  but  dislike  and  despise  Herodes.  He  adopted  the 
voluptuous  ways  of  the  East,  and  received  from  his  father, 
as  an  immediate  share  of  his  heritage,  the  jewels,  silks,  and 
fair  ladies  which  he  had  detached  from  the  baggage  of 
Sapor  when  that  monarch  retired  before  him. 

Yet  there  is  no  ground  for  the  assertion  that  Zenobia 
was  privy  to  the  conspiracy  which  removed  Odenathus  and 
16 


242  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Herodes.  Maeonius  was  consulting  his  own  ambition,  as 
well  as  appeasing  his  hatred,  in  having  them  assassinated. 
For  a  moment  Zenobia  was  in  a  position  of  some  anxiety, 
but  she  acted  with  vigour.  She  thrust  her  son  Vaballath 
— the  "  Historia  Augusta"  at  first  says  her  two  younger  sons, 
but  afterwards  corrects  this — before  the  Palmyreans  as  the 
most  worthy  heir  of  the  power  of  Odenathus,  and  Maeonius 
passes  into  a  significant  obscurity.  Vaballath  was  declared 
Augustus,  and  Zenobia  became  "  Queen  of  the  East,"  as 
she  liked  to  call  herself.  The  two  younger  boys  were 
entitled  Caesars.  Within  a  short  time  it  was  felt  at  Rome 
that  a  new  and  rival  power  had  arisen  in  the  East. 

The  voluptuous  Gallienus  could  at  times  start  from  his 
rose-strewn  couches  and  the  arms  of  his  mistresses,  and 
conduct  an  energetic  raid  upon  the  opponents  of  his 
Empire.  The  victories  of  Odenathus  seem  to  have  inspired 
one  of  these  fits  of  vigour.  The  legions  in  Gaul  had  cast 
off  their  allegiance  to  their  degraded  ruler,  put  his  son 
Saloninus  to  death,  and  chosen  as  Emperor  their  able 
and  upright  commander,  Cassianus  Postumus.  Gallienus 
marched  against  him,  pressed  him  hard  for  a  time,  and 
then  returned  to  Rome  to  enjoy  a  magnificent  triumph. 
One  hundred  white  oxen,  with  gilded  horns,  two  hundred 
white  lambs,  several  hundred  lions,  tigers,  bears,  and  other 
animals,  and  twelve  hundred  gladiators,  in  superb  costumes, 
preceded  his  car.  The  more  serious  Romans  looked  on  in 
disdain.  Some  of  the  mimes,  or  comedians,  dressed  as 
Persians,  and  went  about  in  the  procession,  staring  in  each 
other's  faces,  and  saying  that  they  were  "  looking  for  the 
Emperor's  father."    Gallienus  had  them  burned  alive. 

But  the  chief  interest  of  this  dash  into  Gaul  is  that  it 
first  brings  to  our  notice  the  famous  Gallic  princess 
Vitruvia  or  Victoria.^    We  find  her  supporting  Postumus 

'  Her  name  is  variously  given  as  Vitruvia,  Victoria,  or  Victorina.  Since  it 
appears  as  Vitruvia  where  the  "  Augustan  History  "  copies  from  the  Acts  of 
the  Senate,  and  no  Roman  would  corrupt  Victoria  into  Vitruvia,  I  take  it  that 
it  was  originally  Vitruvia,  and  was  Latinized,  or  changed  by  her  when  she 
became  Empress,  into  Victoria. 


ZENOBIA   AND  VICTORIA  243 

against  Gallienus.  When  he  is  hard  pressed,  she  persuades 
him  to  associate  her  son,  Victorinus,  with  him  in  the 
Empire,  and  presently  she  herself  becomes  Augusta  and 
"  Mother  of  the  Camp  "—a  proof  that  she  accompanied  the 
army.  Victorinus  is  said  by  one  of  the  contemporary 
writers  to  have  been  more  manly  than  Trajan,  more  clement 
than  Antonine,  graver  than  Nerva,  and  a  better  financier 
than  Vespasian  ;  but  this  paragon  of  excellence  had  the  one 
serious  defect  that  he  could  not  withhold  his  covetous  eyes 
from  the  prettier  wives  of  his  officers.  The  responsibility 
of  power  sobered  him  for  a  time,  but  before  long  he  led 
astray  the  wife  of  one  of  his  officers,  and  was  assassinated. 
At  his  mother's  suggestion  he,  with  his  dying  voice,  named 
his  young  son  his  successor,  but  the  angry  soldiers 
murdered  the  boy, 

Victoria  now  put  forward  as  candidate  one  of  the 
soldiers  themselves,  a  brawny  officer  named  Marius,  who 
had  at  one  time  been  armourer  or  smith  to  the  camp.  He 
was  accepted,  but  a  slight  that  he  was  imprudent  enough 
to  put  upon  one  of  his  old  associates  led  to  his  receiving 
in  his  own  breast  one  of  the  swords  he  had  himself  forged, 
after  enjoying  the  delirious  dignity  of  the  purple  for  two 
days.  The  "  thirty  tyrants  "  were  playing  their  parts  with 
great  rapidity.  Tetricus,  the  commander  of  the  troops  and 
a  Senator,  was  next  put  forward  by  Victoria,  and  he  left 
her  in  control  of  the  affairs  of  Gaul  while  he  led  the  army 
into  Spain.  Victoria's  power  was  not  of  long  duration, 
and  the  references  to  her  in  the  chronicles  are  too  meagre 
to  enable  us  to  picture  her  remarkable  personality.  For 
many  years  her  power  in  Gaul  was  so  great  that  her  fame 
ran  through  the  Empire,  and  Zenobia,  as  she  afterwards 
told  Aurelian,  had  the  design  of  communicating  with  her 
and  proposing  to  divide  the  Roman  world  between  them. 
Her  end  is  obscure.  When  Tetricus  returned  from  Spain, 
he  is  said  to  have  resented  her  domination  and  put  her  to 
death ;  though  it  is  elsewhere  said  that  her  death  was  due 
to  natural  causes.  She  did  not  live  to  witness  or  share  the 
humiliation  of  Tetricus  a  few  years  later. 


244  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

We  return  to  Zenobia,  who  had  in  the  meantime  become 
an  independent  sovereign.  Gallienus  had  taken  alarm  at 
the  growth  of  her  power,  and  sent  his  general  Heraclian 
with  secret  instructions  to  dislodge  her.  Zenobia  divined 
the  real  intention  of  Heraclian  and  his  troops,  treated 
him  as  an  invader,  and  destroyed  his  force.  An  invitation 
was  then  received,  or  obtained,  from  Egypt,  and  Zenobia 
sent  70,000  men  to  expel  the  troops  of  Gallienus  from 
what  she  regarded  as  the  kingdom  of  her  fathers.  Egypt 
was  added  to  her  dominions.  Rome  was  now  fully 
alarmed  at  the  success  of  the  two  barbaric  women,  while 
every  other  province  of  the  Empire  was  overrun  by 
invaders  or  detached  by  locally-chosen  Emperors.  One 
of  these  rivals  at  length  drew  Gallienus  from  his  palace 
once  more,  and  gave  an  opportunity  to  remove  his  insolent 
weakness  from  the  throne.  The  Emperor  was  besieging 
the  pretender  to  the  throne  in  Milan,  when  some  of  the 
leading  officers  conspired  to  assassinate  him.  He  was 
drawn  from  his  tent  one  night  in  March  (268)  by  a  false 
alarm  that  the  besieged  had  made  a  sally,  and,  devoid 
alike  of  guards  and  armour,  he  was  soon  stricken  with  a 
mortal  wound.  Salonina  is  said  by  some  to  have  perished 
with  him,  but  of  this  there  is  no  evidence. 

His  successor,  Claudius,  an  experienced  soldier  of 
obscure  descent  but  great  personal  merit,  decided  to  leave 
Zenobia  and  Victoria  in  possession  of  their  power  until 
he  had  rid  the  Empire  of  the  formidable  Goths.  They 
were  said  to  have  an  army  of  320,000  men,  and  the 
whole  of  Greece  and  the  north  of  Asia  Minor  had  been 
plundered  by  them.  The  instruments  of  Roman  comfort 
or  luxury  that  they  took  back  into  the  bleak  forests  of 
the  north  seemed  to  be  drawing  an  inexhaustible  stream 
of  marauders  upon  the  debilitated  south.  Two  years  were 
occupied  by  Claudius  in  destroying  their  power,  and  he 
had  just  cleansed  the  Roman  territory  of  their  presence 
when  he  died  of  the  pestilence,  in  the  spring  of  270.  The 
obscure  brother  of  so  virtuous  and  valorous  a  ruler  was 
deemed  a  worthy  successor  to  the  purple,  but  the  army 


ZENOBIA   AND   VICTORIA  245 

made  choice  of  a  strong  and  capable  commander,  Aurelian, 
and,  after  two  or  three  weeks'  timid  enjoyment  of  his  power, 
Quintilius  opened  his  veins  and  gracefully  yielded  the 
throne. 

The  new  Emperor  was  the  bold  and  sturdy  son  of  a 
provincial  peasant,  who  had  cut  his  way  to  the  position  of 
commander.  Marriage  with  the  daughter  of  a  wealthy 
noble  had  further  improved  his  position,  and  his  temperance, 
zeal  for  discipline,  skill,  and  bravery  had  made  him  a  most 
effective  leader.  His  first  care  was  to  complete  the  victory 
over  the  Goths,  who  were  again  advancing.  After  an 
exhausting  struggle  he  entered  into  friendly  alliance  with 
them,  drove  back  the  other  barbaric  tribes  who  threatened 
or  ignored  the  northern  frontier  of  the  Empire,  and  then 
turned  his  eyes  toward  the  East.  Gibbon  makes  him  first 
apply  himself  to  the  restoration  of  Gaul,  but  the  historians 
Vopiscus  and  Zosimus  expressly  say  that  he  dealt  first 
with  the  Queen  of  the  East. 

Zenobia  had  now,  in  272,  enjoyed  her  remarkable  power 
for  about  four  years,  and  seemed,  owing  to  the  preoccupa- 
tion of  Rome  with  the  northern  barbarians,  to  have 
established  a  solid  and  durable  kingdom.  Parthia  and 
Persia  respected  her  southern  boundaries ;  Egypt  peacefully 
acknowledged  her  rule  ;  and  even  the  cities  of  Asia  Minor 
were  beginning  to  bow  to  her  title.  But  Palmyra  was  not 
a  Rome,  and  provided  too  slender  a  base  for  so  vast  a 
dominion.  As  Aurelian  and  his  formidable  legions  marched 
across  Asia  Minor,  the  cities  returned  at  once  to  the 
Roman  allegiance,  and  Zenobia  prepared  for  a  severe 
struggle.  She  led  her  army  out  in  person  from  Antioch, 
and  met  the  Romans  near  the  river  Orontes.  Modern 
historians  usually  follow  the  account  of  the  battle  which 
describes  Aurelian  as  stealing  a  victory  by  stratagem.  He 
is  said  to  have  noticed  the  weight  of  Zenobia's  heavily- 
armoured  cavalry,  drawn  them  into  a  wild  gallop  by  a 
feigned  retreat,  and  then  wheeled  his  troops,  when  they 
showed  signs  of  fatigue,  and  scattered  them.  But  the 
"  Historia  Augusta,"  the  nearest  authority,  tells  us  that 


246  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Aurelian's  troops  were  really  routed  at  first,   and  then 
recovered — owing  to  a  miraculous  apparition — and  won. 

Zenobia  retired  to  Antioch.  Her  general,  Zabda,  de- 
luded the  inhabitants  with  a  false  report  of  victory,  and 
trailed  through  the  streets  a  captive  whom  he  had  dressed 
as  Aurelian.  But  the  Emperor  was  advancing,  and  they 
fled  during  the  night  to  Emesa,  where  they  were  still 
able  to  put  70,000  men  in  the  path  of  Aurelian.  The 
second  battle  proved  as  disastrous  to  Zenobia  as  the  first, 
and  it  was  decided  to  retire  at  once  on  Palmyra.  For  a 
long  time  the  city  held  Aurelian  at  bay,  and  he  magnani- 
mously allowed  that  its  successful  resistance  was  due  to 
the  sagacity  of  Zenobia.  In  the  midst  of  the  long  siege 
he  wrote  to  a  friend  at  Rome : 

"  I  hear  that  it  is  said  that  I  do  not  the  work  of  a 
man  in  triumphing  over  Zenobia.  Those  who  blame  me 
have  no  idea  what  kind  of  a  woman  she  is — how  prudent 
in  counsel,  how  assiduous  in  arrangement,  how  severe 
with  the  troops,  how  liberal  when  it  is  expedient,  how 
stern  when  there  is  need  for  sternness.  I  may  venture  to 
say  that  it  was  due  to  her  that  Odenathus  put  Sapor  to 
flight,  and  advanced  as  far  as  Ctesiphon.  1  can  assure 
you  that  she  was  held  in  such  terror  in  the  East  and  in 
Egypt  that  the  Arabs,  the  Saracens,  and  the  Armenians 
were  afraid  to  move." 

So  difficult  and  protracted  did  the  siege  prove  that 
Aurelian  at  length  wrote  to  her,  off'ering  to  spare  her 
life  if  she  would  surrender.  The  answer  seems  to  have 
been  preserved  in  one  of  those  libraries  of  valuable  docu- 
ments at  Rome,  from  which  the  writers  of  the  "  Historia 
Augusta  "  obtained  their  material,  as  they  tell  us.     It  ran : 

"Zenobia,  Queen  of  the  East,  to  Aurelius  Augustus. 
No  one  has  ever  yet  made  by  letter  such  a  request  as  you 
make.  In  matters  of  war  you  must  obtain  what  you  want 
by  deeds.  You  ask  me  to  surrender,  as  if  you  were 
unaware  that  Cleopatra  preferred  to  die  rather  than  lose 
her  dignity.  We  are  expecting  auxiliaries  from  Persia, 
and  the  Saracens  and  Armenians  are  with  us.  The  robbers 
of  Syria  beat  your  army,  Aurelian.  What  will  happen  to 
you  when  our  reinforcements  come  ?    You  will  assuredly 


ZENOBIA   AND   VICTORIA  247 

have  to  lay  aside  the  pride  with  which,  as  if  you  were  a 
universal  conqueror,  you  call  on  me  to  surrender." 

The  expectation  of  reinforcements  was  sincere,  but  was 
destined  to  be  disappointed.  Day  after  da}^  Zenobia  and 
her  officers  looked  out  over  the  desert  from  their  invincible 
walls,  and  descried  no  sign  of  the  deliverers.  Persia  was 
distracted  by  the  death  of  Sapor ;  the  Armenians  and  the 
Saracens  had  been  seduced  from  her  by  Aurelian.  Food 
began  to  fail,  and  the  iron  legions  clung  tenaciously  to  the 
little  strip  of  country  and  intercepted  whatever  aid  came  to 
her.  Zenobia  resolved  to  go  to  Persia  herself  in  quest  of 
aid.  Under  cover  of  the  night  she  stole  out  of  the  town, 
and  fled  toward  Persia  on  a  dromedary. 

Within  a  few  days  the  anxious  Palmyreans  again  saw 
their  Queen — a  captive  in  the  hands  of  the  Roman  soldiers. 
It  is  probable  that  she  had  been  betrayed.  Aurelian,  at  all 
events,  heard  of  her  flight,  and  sent  a  company  of  horse  in 
pursuit.  They  reached  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  just  as 
Zenobia  and  her  attendants  had  entered  a  boat,  and  brought 
her  back  to  the  camp.  She  was  one  hour  too  late  to  save  her 
liberty,  or  sacrifice  her  life.  Palmyra  sadly  opened  its  gates, 
and  Aurelian  transferred  its  priceless  treasures  and  rare 
curiosities  to  his  wagons.  Its  chief  officers  and  Zenobia 
he  led  away  to  Emesa,  and  put  them  on  trial  for  rebellion. 

The  reader  of  Gibbon  will  expect  that  we  have  now 
reached  a  point  where  the  virility  of  Zenobia  faints  and  the 
eternal  feminine  reveals  itself  Gibbon  records,  indeed,  the 
bold  answer  which  Zenobia  made  to  Aurelian's  complaint 
of  her  infidelity  to  Rome  ;  but  he  goes  on  to  say  that,  as  the 
fierce  demands  of  the  soldiers  for  her  death  fell  on  her 
ears,  she  tremblingly  pleaded  for  life,  and,  with  a  cowardice 
that  her  sex  only  could  palliate,  insisted  that  Longinus  and 
the  others  had  seduced  her  from  her  duty.  Happily,  we 
have  a  clear  right  to  quarrel  with  the  procedure  of  the 
great  historian  at  this  point.  There  are  two  versions  of 
the  behaviour  of  Zenobia :  that  of  the  Latin  historians, 
Trebellius  Pollio  and  Vopiscus  in  the  "  Historia  Augusta,'' 


248  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

and  that  of  the  Greek  historian  Zosimus.  The  Latin 
writers,  who  lived  at  Rome  in  the  generation  after  Zenobia, 
make  her  reply  boldly  to  Aurelian,  and  do  not  say  a  word 
about  her  casting  the  blame  on  others.  The  Greek  writer, 
a  much  later  compiler,  represents  her  as,  in  the  words  of 
Gibbon,  "  ignominiously  purchasing  life  by  the  sacrifice  of 
her  fame  and  her  friends."  Gibbon  affects  to  reconcile  the 
two  by  making  the  woman's  weakness  follow  upon  the 
momentary  show  of  courage. 

To  this  method  of  reconciling  contradictory  and  unequal 
authorities  we  may  justly  demur.  The  much  later  version 
of  Zosimus  is  not  only  less  entitled  in  itself  to  acceptance, 
but  it  is  seriously  enfeebled  when  he  goes  on  to  make  the 
wildly  erroneous  statement  that  Zenobia  died  on  the  way 
to  Rome,  and  her  companions  were  sunk  in  the  Bosphorus. 
We  have  every  right  to  follow  the  Latin  historians. 
Zenobia  was  brought  before  Aurelian,  and  the  soldiers 
fiercely  demanded  that  she  should  be  put  to  death.  Ex- 
asperated as  the  Emperor  was,  he  refused  to  slay  a  woman, 
and  asked  her  why  she  had  dared  to  resist  the  majesty  of 
Rome.  "  In  you,"  sh :  replied,  "  I  recognize  an  Imperial 
majesty,  because  you  have  vanquished  me,  but  I  saw  none  in 
Gallienus."  Her  life  was  spared.  What  Roman  general 
could  have  resisted  the  wish  to  grace  his  triumph  at  Rome 
with  a  greater  than  Cleopatra  ?  The  troops,  with  their 
vast  treasures  and  their  captives,  moved  slowly  homeward, 
after  executing  Longinus  and  some  others. 

In  the  triumph  which  Aurelian  had  so  splendidly  earned, 
and  no  less  splendidly  celebrated,  we  catch  our  last  certain 
glimpse  of  the  Queen  of  the  East,  one  of  the  most  notable 
women  of  all  time.  Along  the  flower-strewn  lane  between 
the  dense  walls  of  citizens  passes  one  of  the  longest  and 
grandest  processions  that  ever  led  a  victor  to  the  Capitol. 
An  immense  number  of  tamed  elephants,  lions,  tigers, 
leopards,  bears,  and  other  beasts  move  slowly  and  sullenly 
along,  and  eight  hundred  pairs  of  gladiators  give  promise 
of  the  impending  spectacles.  Then  there  are  cars  heavily 
laden  with  the  gold,  silver,  and  jewels  of  Palmyra,  the  rare 


ZENOBIA 

F.Nl.ARtiKI)    HKUM     IHE    COrN    IN    THE    BERLIN    MLSKLM 


ZENOBIA   AND   VICTORIA  249 

presents  of  Persia,  the  purples  of  India,  and  the  silks  of 
China.  Then  there  is  the  long  and  extraordinary  train  of 
captives,  representing  the  nineteen  nations  which  Aurelian 
has  subdued,  even  women  who  have  been  taken,  in  male 
costume,  in  the  sternest  battles.  At  last  the  melancholy 
line  is  closed  by  the  lithe  bronzed  figure,  with  brilliant 
black  eyes  and  teeth  like  pearls,  of  the  woman  whose 
beauty,  genius,  and  daring  have  been  on  the  lips  of  Rome 
for  several  years.  Clothed  for  the  last  time  in  the  heavily- 
jewelled  robes  of  a  queen — she  had  complained  that  she 
was  not  strong  enough  to  walk  under  the  load  of  jewels — 
she  drags  along  the  golden  chains  which  bind  her  hands 
and  feet,  and  a  slave  sustains  the  weight  of  the  gold  band 
round  her  throat.  Beside  her,  in  scarlet  cloak  and  Gallic 
trousers,  is  Tetricus,  Victoria's  last  Emperor  in  Gaul.  The 
whole  Empire  is  again  subject  to  Rome.  And  before  the 
car  of  the  conqueror  three  empty  chariots  are  driven  :  one 
is  the  gold  and  silver  car  of  Odenathus,  one,  of  gold  studded 
with  gems,  is  a  present  from  Persia,  and  the  third  is  the  car 
which  Zenobia  had  made  for  her  triumphant  entry  into 
Rome.  Never  had  Emperor  looked  from  his  car  on  so 
superb  a  triumph.  In  less  than  a  year  Aurelian  would  be 
assassinated. 

The  last  phase  of  Zenobia's  life  is  not  quite  clear. 
Zosimus  is  certainly  wrong  in  his  reproduction  of  a 
story  that  she  died,  or  took  her  life,  before  she  reached 
Rome.  Still  later  and  equally  negligible  writers  ventured 
to  say  that  she  became  a  Christian,  and  even  that  Aurelian 
married  one  of  her  daughters.  The  "  Historia  Augusta," 
which  we  may  follow,  as  it  was  written  in  Rome  a 
generation  later,  tells  us  that  Aurelian  gave  her  a  villa 
near  Hadrian's  palace  at  Tivoli,  where  she  spent  the  rest 
of  her  life  in  the  education  of  her  children  and  the  prosy 
duties  of  a  Roman  matron,  and,  we  may  conjecture,  in 
looking  back  with  sad  but  proud  recollection  on  the 
stirring  romance  of  her  career.  Bishop  Eusebius  observes 
briefly  in  his  "  Chronicle "  that  she  lived  to  a  great  age, 
and  was  held  in  the  greatest  regard  at  Rome. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  WIFE  AND   DAUGHTER  OF  DIOCLETIAN 

ALTHOUGH  we  have  already  indicated  the  fate  of 
Aurelian,  we  have  not  yet  referred  to  the  woman 
who  shared  his  Imperial  title  and  his  great  renown. 
Her  personality  is,  in  fact,  entirely  unknown;  even  her 
name  is  preserved  for  us  only  on  the  coinage.  We  may 
fairly  conjecture  that  she  disliked  the  plebeian  ways  of  her 
husband,  and  discharged  the  duties  of  a  consort  without 
enthusiasm.  Daughter  of  a  wealthy  and  prominent  noble, 
Ulpius  Crinitus,  she  had  conferred  a  useful  distinction 
on  the  ambitious  peasant  at  a  time  when  he  was  making 
his  way  in  the  Imperial  service,  and  it  is  conjectured,  on 
somewhat  slender  grounds,  that  she  accompanied  him  on 
his  campaigns.  But  his  life  at  the  palace  was  short  and 
inglorious.  He  disliked  its  pomp  and  luxury,  and  found 
his  chief  delight  in  pitting  his  comedians  against  each 
other  in  eating-contests.  He  pampered  the  common  citi- 
zens by  increasing  their  free  ration  of  bread,  and  adding 
pork  to  it.  When  he  went  on  to  meditate  a  free  dis- 
tribution of  wine,  one  of  his  ministers  sarcastically  sug- 
gested that  he  might  add  geese  and  chickens.  When  the 
Empress,  Ulpia  Severina,  thought  it  fitting  that  she  should 
wear  silk  mantles,  her  husband  forbade  her  to  indulge 
in  that  rare  and  costly  product  of  a  precarious  commerce 
with  China. 

Aurelian  was,  in  fact,  essentially  a  soldier.  His  manner, 
and  even  the  reforms  which  he  endeavoured  to  make, 
caused  grave  dissatisfaction  at  Rome,  and  a  conspiracy 

250 


THE  WIFE  AND  DAUGHTER  OF  DIOCLETIAN     251 

against  him  was  discovered  within  a  few  months  of  the 
magnificent  triumph  he  had  enjoyed.  He  crushed  it  with 
a  fierceness  that  almost  obliterated  the  memory  of  his 
great  services,  and  then  returned  to  Asia  to  meet  the 
Persians.  On  his  march  he  was  assassinated,  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  275,  and  the  great  promise  of  his 
reign  was  unfulfilled.  Ulpia  Severina  seems  to  have  died 
before  him,  as  the  historian  speaks  only  of  a  daughter 
who  survived  him. 

Once  more  we  pass  swiftly  over  a  number  of  turbulent 
years  until  we  come  to  an  Empress  of  whom  we  have 
a  comparatively  ample  knowledge.  It  is  generally  ad- 
mitted, though  not  entirely  beyond  doubt,  that  the  throne 
remained  vacant  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year  275. 
The  "  Historia  Augusta,"  at  least,  which  was  written  in 
the  next  generation,  describes  a  situation  in  remarkable 
contrast  to  the  earlier  haste  in  appointing  Emperors. 
We  are  asked  to  believe  that  the  Senate  and  the  army 
spent  many  months  in  a  most  edifying  encounter,  each 
endeavouring  to  induce  the  other  to  choose  a  ruler.  At 
length  the  Senators  chose  one  of  their  number,  the  aged 
and  upright  Tacitus,  who  set  out  to  take  command  of  the 
troops  in  Asia.  Within  a  few  weeks,  worn  by  the  un- 
wonted fatigue  and  pained  by  the  unruly  behaviour  of 
the  soldiers,  he  passed  away.  Some  of  the  historians 
declare  that  he  died  of  actual  violence.  There  is  no 
trace  of  an  Empress.  We  read  that  Tacitus,  like  Aurelian, 
forbade  his  wife  to  wear  sumptuous  clothing,  but  this 
was  probably  in  earlier  days.  The  absence  of  coins  leads 
us  to  think  that  she  had  died. 

He  was  succeeded  by  a  young  and  vigorous  officer, 
of  peasant  extraction,  named  Probus,  under  whom  the 
Empire  recovered  much  of  its  strength.  For  six  years  he 
laboured  successfully  to  restore  the  prestige  of  Rome, 
but  his  severity  led  at  length  to  assassination.  During 
a  mutiny  of  the  soldiers,  in  the  year  282,  "a  thousand 
swords  were  plunged  at  once  into  the  bosom  of  the  un- 
fortunate  Probus,"  as  Gibbon    too    floridly  expresses   it. 


252  THE  EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

From  the  absence  of  coins  we  may  almost  gather  that 
his  wife  had  died  before  his  accession.  Cams,  who 
•succeeded  him,  was  an  aged  general  of  sixty  years.  He 
died  after  a  year  of  strenuous  warfare,  and  left  the 
Empire  to  his  sons  Carinus  and  Numerianus.  The 
younger  Emperor  was  dispatched  to  the  East,  and  Carinus 
virtually  reigned  alone. 

Even  the  experience  of  our  own  time  has  so  frequently 
taught  us  to  expect  a  mediocre  or  effeminate  issue  from 
a  distinguished  and  virile  stock  that  we  do  not  wonder 
at  this  happening  constantly  in  the  history  of  Rome.  We 
need  not  refer  it  to  the  mystery  of  heredity.  The  vigorous 
sire  had  developed  and  enhanced  his  strength  in  the  labori- 
ous climb  to  the  heights  of  his  chosen  world.  The  son, 
finding  the  paths  to  the  summit  smoothed,  and  an  engaging 
luxury  at  his  command  without  exertion,  allows  it  to 
degenerate.  The  finest  steel  and  the  purest  gold  yield  and 
crumble  in  a  corroding  atmosphere.  We  cannot,  therefore, 
affect  astonishment  at  the  almost  invariable  failure  of  the 
Roman  practice  of  eagerly  welcoming  a  son  to  the  place 
of  his  gifted  father. 

The  reign  of  Carinus  affords  one  of  the  worst  illustra- 
tions of  the  evil.  Indolent,  insolent,  and  luxurious,  he 
saw  in  his  Imperial  power  an  opulent  ministry  to  his 
depraved  tastes.  He  did  indeed  provide  Rome  with  the 
most  splendid  entertainments.  The  amphitheatre  rang 
once  more  with  the  coarse  applause  of  the  ninety  thousand 
spectators  of  its  bloody  contests ;  the  Circus  was  trans- 
formed into  a  forest,  in  which  the  strange  or  beautiful 
beasts  of  remote  lands  lived  under  the  eyes  of  three 
hundred  thousand  Romans.  But  this  indulgence  of  the 
people's  appetites  was  held  to  excuse  an  unbridled  ministry 
to  those  of  the  prince.  The  whisper  went  once  more 
through  the  fetid  depths  of  Roman  life  that  there  were 
rich  awards  for  the  ingenious  and  industrious  pandar  to 
a  sated  voluptuary,  and  the  palace  exhibited  again  the 
loathsome  spectacles  that  had  long  been  expelled  from  it. 

They  have  little  interest  for  us,  as  although  Carinus 


THE  WIFE  AND  DAUGHTER  OF  DIOCLETIAN    253 

made  and  unmade  nine  Empresses  in  little  over  a  year, 
they  are  lost  in  the  riot  of  the  time.  One  poor  name, 
that  of  Magnia  Urbica,  has  survived  on  a  few  coins.  She 
is  given  by  Serviez  as  the  wife  of  Carus,  because  she  is 
represented  with  two  children  on  one  of  the  coins.  Cohen 
points  out,  however,  that  the  group  does  not  properly 
consist  of  a  mother  and  two  children,  and  he  concludes 
that  she  was  one  of  the  nine  wives  of  Carinus.  In  the 
number  of  his  consorts  Carinus  surpassed  the  high  record 
of  Imperial  license,  and  he  was  not  less  original  in  the 
grounds  for  his  divorces.  Sterility  has  often  been  pleaded 
by  monarchs  as  a  fit  reason  for  repudiating  their  wives ; 
it  was  reserved  to  Carinus  to  dismiss  them  the  moment 
they  gave  proof  of  fertility.  So  the  women  of  Rome 
succeeded  each  other  rapidly  in  the  dissolute  palace,  where 
the  Emperor,  surrounded  by  his  courtesans,  glittering  down 
to  his  shoes  with  diamonds  and  emeralds,-  sat  on  rose- 
strewn  couches  to  his  costly  banquets. 

The  new  pestilence  was  blown  out  of  the  Imperial 
city  by  a  storm  from  the  East.  The  younger  Emperor, 
Numerianus,  was  a  gentle,  cultured,  and  delicate  youth. 
As  he  led  the  troops  home  from  the  East,  he  sheltered 
his  eyes  from  the  burning  sun  by  keeping  to  his  tent 
or  his  closed  litter.  At  length  his  complete  seclusion 
gave  rise  to  suspicion,  and  the  soldiers  broke  into  his 
tent,  only  to  find  a  mouldering  body.  The  ambition  of 
Aper,  his  father-in-law,  who  commanded  the  guards, 
fastened  the  guilt  upon  him,  and  a  general  assembly  of 
the  soldiers  appointed  one  of  their  abler  officers,  Diocletian, 
to  judge  him.  Diocletian,  possibly  with  reason,  preferred 
to  execute  rather  than  to  try  Aper,  and  he  was  at  once 
saluted  as  Emperor  by  the  troops.  The  son  of  two  slaves, 
he  had  educated  himself  and  pushed  his  way  to  the  highest 
offices  and  commands ;  and  he  now  composedly  donned 
the  purple  mantle  which  the  soldiers  offered  him,  and 
led  the  legions  toward  Rome.  Carinus  marched  out 
against  him,  but  was  assassinated  by  an  officer  whose  wife 
he  had  appropriated,  and  a   new  chapter  opened   in   the 


254  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

annals  of  Rome.  A  strong  man  and  judicious  statesman 
had  come  to  the  throne,  and  he  would  occupy  it  for  twenty 
years. 

From  our  point  of  view  it  is  disappointing  that  the 
wife  of  Diocletian  does  not  come  to  our  notice  until  his 
reign  is  nearly  over.  Her  very  name  was  disputed  for 
ages;  even  now  her  personality  is  only  faintly  illumined 
by  the  adventures  of  her  later  years.  Her  daughter  is 
a  more  commanding  figure,  and  other  Imperial  ladies  stand 
out  in  the  chronicle  of  the  times.  Some  of  these,  such 
as  the  mother  and  wife  of  Constantine,  we  reserve  for  the 
next  chapter ;  and  we  may  compress  into  a  few  lines  the 
story  of  the  twenty  years'  reign  of  Diocletian. 

A  year  after  his  accession,  which  took  place  in  the  year 
285,  Diocletian  chose  a  colleague  to  share  the  control  of 
the  vast  Empire.  This  friend  and  partner,  Maximian,  was 
the  son  of  peasants,  rough,  ignorant,  and  unscrupulous, 
but  an  effective  commander.  He  was  entrusted  with  the 
care  of  the  West,  Diocletian  passed  to  the  East,  and  several 
years  were  profitably  spent  in  restoring  the  crumbling 
frontiers.  The  task  proved  so  formidable  that,  in  292,  they 
chose  two  officers  for  the  inferior  dignity  of  "  Caesars  " — 
a  title  which  implied  that  they  would  probably  one  day  be 
Augusti,  and  should  meantime  wear  the  purple,  but  have 
no  power  to  make  laws  or  control  finance.  Of  the  two, 
Galerius  again  was  a  child  of  the  soil,  while  Constantius 
was  the  son  of  a  provincial  noble ;  and  they  were  compelled 
to  dismiss  their  humbler  wives,  and  wed  the  daughters  of 
the  Emperors.  Four  courts  were  thus  set  up  within  the 
Empire,  while  Rome  found  itself  coldly  neglected,  its  palace 
deserted,  and  its  Senate  impotent. 

To  the  court  of  Galerius  we  shall  return  presently, 
while  we  leave  the  affairs  of  Constantius  and  his  wife  to 
the  next  chapter.  The  court  and  the  Empress  of  Maximian 
need  not  detain  us.  He  chose  Milan  as  his  seat,  and  began 
to  adorn  the  northern  town  with  the  marble  edifices  that 
befitted  its  new  dignity.  His  wife  was  a  very  attractive 
Syrian  woman,  Galeria  Valeria  Eutropia.    Her  name  has 


THE  WIFE  AND  DAUGHTER  OF  DIOCLETIAN     255 

led  some  to  conjecture  that  she  was  related  to  the  father 
of  Constantius,  Eutropius,  one  of  the  chief  nobles  of 
Dardania,  though  the  connexion  is  feeble.  She  seems,  in 
any  case,  to  have  regarded  her  uncultivated  husband  with 
disdain,  and  sought  more  genial  company.  Her  son 
Maxentius  is  said  by  some  to  have  been  the  issue  of  a 
liaison  with  a  compatriot,  while  others  declare  that  he  was 
a  boy  substituted  for  the  daughter  she  bore,  because 
Maximian  desired  a  son.  We  may  leave  these  disputable 
scandals  and  come  to  the  court  of  Diocletian. 

The  son  of  a  Roman  slave  had  created  a  glittering 
court  at  Nicomedia.  His  palace,  round  which  the  city 
quickly  grew  in  size  and  magnificence,  was  adorned  and 
served  with  an  Oriental  pomp.  The  successive  approaches 
to  the  chamber  of  the  Emperor  were  guarded  by  splendid 
officials,  and  when  the  suppliant  or  ambassador  penetrated 
at  length  to  the  inner  apartment,  he  found  the  stately 
Diocletian  in  purple  and  gold  robes,  his  brow  encircled 
by  a  glistening  diadem,  and  was  compelled  to  prostrate 
himself  before  the  divine  majesty.  It  was  not,  however, 
the  vanity  or  folly  of  a  Caligula,  but  a  calculated  policy, 
that  had  prompted  Diocletian  to  clothe  himself  with  this 
Olympic  dignity.  Earlier  Emperors,  of  the  same  mean 
extraction,  had  refused  to  put  a  barrier  of  royal  ceremony 
between  themselves  and  their  subjects  or  soldiers,  and 
had  invariably  fallen  by  the  hand  of  the  assassin.  Diocletian 
was  too  shrewd,  too  much  attached  to  life,  and  too  sensible 
of  his  beneficent  use  of  power,  to  incur  the  risk.  He  had 
restored  Egypt  to  obedience,  humiliated  the  Persians,  and 
devoted  an  even  greater  ability  to  the  reform  of  the 
administration.  Co-operating  with  his  vigorous  colleague 
in  the  West,  he  had  brought  peace  and  prosperity  back  to 
the  Empire. 

In  the  settled  years  of  his  reign  we  begin  again  to 
recognize  the  various  personalities  of  the  court.  The 
Empress  herself  is  more  or  less  involved  in  a  piquant 
obscurity.  Until  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  her 
name  was  unknown,  and  a  great  deal  of  romantic  legend  was 


256  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

reproduced  in  regard  to  her.  Cardinal  Baronius  found  in 
"Acts  of  St.  Susanna"  that  her  name  was  St.  Serena,  a  martyr 
for  the  Christian  faith.  Other  "  Acts "  of  the  martyrs 
furnished  a  St.  Eleuthera  and  a  St.  Alexandra  as  consorts 
of  Diocletian.  He  seemed  to  have  been  an  Imperial  Blue- 
beard. But  in  1679  the  manuscript  was  found  of  an  early 
Christian  work,  "  On  the  Deaths  of  the  Persecutors,"  and 
the  earlier  writings  were  proved,  in  the  words  of  the 
learned  Franciscan,  Father  Pagi,  to  be  fictitious  and  full  of 
untruths.  The  many  saintly  martyrs  gave  way  to  an 
Empress  Prisca,  who  broke  down  lamentably  at  the  first 
test  of  her  faith.  It  is  very  curious  that  we  have  no  coins 
whatever  of  Prisca,  though  she  must  have  lived  through 
the  whole  reign  of  Diocletian.  This,  and  the  fact  that  she 
left  him  many  years  before  his  death,  suggest  either  that 
she  was  not  married  to  him  at  all  or  that  he  had  little 
regard  for  her.  She  was,  in  any  case,  a  woman  of  weak 
and  retiring  character,  and  is  mentioned  only  in  associa- 
tion with  her  daughter. 

Valeria  was  a  beautiful,  attractive,  and  spirited  young 
woman,  with  a  good  deal  of  the  strength,  and  not  a 
little  of  the  ambition,  of  her  father.  She  was  married 
to  Galerius,  the  Caesar  whom  Diocletian  had  chosen,  and 
remained  with  him  by  the  side  of  the  Emperor.  Galerius 
was,  as  I  said,  of  peasant  origin,  and  never  laid  aside 
the  uncultivated  roughness  of  his  class.  Diocletian  had, 
by  diligent  education,  erased  the  traces  of  his  own  lowly 
origin,  but  his  peasant  colleagues  had  gone  straight  from 
the  soil  to  the  camp,  and  the  work  of  a  soldier  had  not 
given  them  the  least  inclination  to  seek  culture.  The 
character  of  Galerius  has  been  painted  in  the  most  lurid 
colours  on  account  of  his  persecution  of  the  Christians,  but 
it  is  significant  that  both  Valeria  and  Prisca  clung  to  his 
court  when  Diocletian  retired.  His  mother,  Romula,  and 
other  rustic  relatives  were  attracted  to  his  court.  There 
was,  it  is  clear,  a  most  incongruous  group  of  personalities 
about  the  court  of  Diocletian,  and  in  the  nineteenth  year 
of  his  reign  they  were  shaken  by  a  severe  storm.    The 


THE  WIFE  AND  DAUGHTER  OF  DIOCLETIAN     257 

great  and  final  struggle  began  between  the  old  faith  and 
the  new,  and  Prisca  and  Valeria  favoured  the  latter, 

Christianity  had  not  been  persecuted  for  half  a  century, 
and  had  made  great  progress.     The  cult  of  the  old  gods 
was   palpably   insincere,   and   half-a-dozen  Asiatic  creeds 
were  steadily  supplanting  it.     On  the  streets  of  Nicomedia, 
as  on  the  streets  of  Rome   or  any  other  large  city,  one 
might  meet  any  day  the  white-robed  shaven  priests  of  Isis, 
the  painted  and  effeminate  ministers  of  Cybele,  the  Persian 
representatives  of  the  popular  cult  of  Mithra,  and — until 
they  were  expelled  by  Diocletian — the  black-garbed  clergy 
of  the  Manichaeans  and   the   Christians.     The  Christians 
were  now  advancing.    There  had  been  some  slight  and 
irregular  repression  of  them  from  time  to  time  since  the 
days  of  Nero,  but  more  than  forty  years  of  toleration,  and 
the  knowledge  that  their  adherents  were  now  occupying 
high  places  in  the  camp  and  the  court,  and  that  even  the 
wives  of  the  Emperor  and  the  Caesar  favoured  them,  gave 
them  strong  confidence.     One  of  their  churches  occupied 
a  central  and  commanding  position  in  Nicomedia.     Four 
influential  officers  of  the  court  attended  it,  and  it  seems 
that  Valeria   and   Prisca  were,   if  not   Christians,   openly 
disposed  to  the  new  religion.     All  we  know  in  that  regard 
is  that  they  were  "  compelled  "  to  sacrifice  when  the  per- 
secution began. 

Persecution  on  account  of  religion,  as  such,  was  not 
natural  to  the  cosmopolitan  builders  of  the  Pantheon,  and 
Diocletian  was  a  broad-minded  statesman,  so  that  the 
origin  of  the  persecution  is  not  so  clear  as  it  was  once 
held  to  be.  The  literary  remains  which  we  have  to  use 
have  to  be  handled  with  caution.  The  "  Historia  Augusta" 
has  ended  with  Carinus,  and  we  shall  greatly  miss  its 
minute  and  gossipy  descriptions.  Zosimus,  a  pagan  writing 
in  a  Christian  age,  has  an  appearance  of  sullen  reticence 
at  times  and  a  perceptible  bias.  Aurelius  Victor  and 
Eutropius  are  scanty,  and  the  immediate  Christian  writers 
are  used  very  cautiously  by  modern  historians.  Bishop 
Eusebius  says  frankly,  in  his  "  Life  of  Constantine,"  that 
17 


258  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

he  will  write  only  what  tends  to  edify,  and  the  little  work 
"On  the  Deaths  of  the  Persecutors"  is  obviously  imagi- 
native in  many  pages  and  inaccurate  in  others.  Experts 
still  differ  as  to  whether  it  comes  from  the  pen  of  the 
brilliant  Christian  rhetorician  Lactantius,  but  all  warn  us 
to  take  account  of  its  strong  feeling.  Our  authorities,  in 
a  word,  now  belong  to  two  antagonistic  and  bitterly  hostile 
creeds,  and,  as  all  subsequent  historians  favour  one  side 
or  the  other,  we  have  to  proceed  with  caution.  I  have 
endeavoured,  in  the  remaining  chapters,  to  make  my 
way  between  them  with  more  than  ordinary  care  and 
independence. 

A  few  incautious  hints  given  in  Lactantius  throw 
a  faint  light  on  the  origin  of  the  great  persecution.  The 
writer  of  the  treatise  has  himself  a  very  positive  theory. 
The  root  of  the  evil  was,  he  says,  Romula,  the  peasant- 
mother  of  the  Caesar.  Fanatically  attached  to  the  gods  of 
her  native  mountains,  she  inspired  her  son  with  a  hatred 
of  Christianity,  and  Galerius  bullied  the  older  Emperor 
into  issuing  the  Edict  of  Persecution.  We  feel  that  the 
policy  of  Diocletian  would  hardly  yield  to  the  prejudice 
of  a  superstitious  woman.  There  is  more  enlightenment 
in  the  incidental  statements  that  Romula  was  stung  by 
the  disdain  of  Christian  officers  in  the  palace,  and  that 
Diocletian  was  greatly  annoyed  at  seeing  Christian  soldiers 
disturb  the  harmony,  if  not  the  efficacy,  of  his  sacrificial 
ceremonies  by  making  the  sign  of  the  cross.  Galerius 
may  have  been  moved  by  the  growing  reluctance  of 
Christians  to  bear  arms,  and  the  very  pronounced  rejection 
by  some  of  the  arms  they  bore.  There  is  no  need  to  trust 
the  imaginary  conversation  which  Lactantius  puts  in  the 
mouths  of  Diocletian  and  Galerius.  They  agreed  that  the 
zeal  of  the  Christians  was  impertinent  or  dangerous,  and, 
in  the  month  of  February  (303),  a  troop  of  soldiers  was 
sent  to  raze  to  the  ground  their  large  and  commanding 
church.  On  the  following  day  Diocletian  published  an 
Edict  lorbidding  the  cult  under  grave  penalties.  When 
the  Imperial  decree  was  torn  down  by  a  zealous  Christian, 


THE  WIFE  AND  DAUGHTER  OF  DIOCLETIAN    259 

and  this  act  of  treason  was  openly  applauded  by  his 
fellows,  Diocletian  was  embittered,  and  blood  began  to 
flow.  During  the  next  fortnight  the  Emperor's  quarters 
in  the  palace  were  twice  found  to  be  in  flames.  Diocletian 
was  convinced  that  the  fire  was  kindled  by  Christian 
officers,  and  gave  a  full  sanction  to  the  work  of  repressing 
them. 

Prisca  and  Valeria  were  not  among  the  heroines  of  the 
persecution.  Lactantius  destroys  all  the  myths  of  martyred 
Empresses  by  telling  us  that  they  consented  to  burn  a  few 
grains  of  incense  in  honour  of  Jupiter,  and  impotently 
witnessed  the  dark  roll  of  the  wave  of  persecution  through 
the  provinces.  He  does  not  even  say  that  they  joined, 
or  rejoined,  the  Church  when  the  persecution  was  over, 
and  we  lose  sight  of  them  for  a  few  years.  Probably  they 
went  with  Diocletian  to  Rome  for  his  triumph  in  November, 
and  returned  with  him  to  Nicomedia  in  the  summer  of  304. 
He  was  confined  to  the  palace  by  a  serious  illness  during 
the  following  winter,  and  as  soon  as  he  recovered  he 
abdicated  the  throne.  It  is  untrue  that  the  threats  of 
Galerius  forced  him  to  do  this.  He  had  expressed  the 
intention  years  before. 

On  a  wide  plain  near  Nicomedia  the  army  assembled  on 
May  ist,  305,  for  the  unexampled  ceremony  of  the  abdica- 
tion of  an  Emperor.  A  little  hill  in  the  centre  was  sur- 
mounted by  a  lofty  throne  and  a  statue  of  Jupiter,  and  the 
ageing  Emperor — he  was  in  his  fifty-ninth  year — surren- 
dered the  power  he  had  wielded  so  well  for  more  than 
twenty  years.  By  a  previous  arrangement,  Maximian  was 
abdicating  on  the  same  day  at  Milan.  The  two  Caesars 
became  Augusti,  and  two  new  Caesars  were  appointed.  In 
their  selection  we  recognize  the  partial  and  unskilful  hand 
of  Galerius.  He  handed  his  own  Caesarean  dignity  to  a 
rustic  nephew,  Daza — "  who  had  just  left  his  herds  in  the 
forest,"  Lactantius  scornfully  says — and  sent  a  loyal  and 
undistinguished  friend  to  receive  that  of  Maximian  in  Italy. 
From  that  selfish  act  would  develop  one  of  the  greatest 
civil  wars  since  the  founding  of  the  Empire.     In  the  ranks 


26o  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

of  the  officers  by  the  platform  was  the  tall,  handsome, 
gifted,  and  disappointed  young  man  who  would  one  day 
be  known  as  Constantine  the  Great. 

Diocletian  retired  to  Salona,  in  his  native  province  of 
Dalmatia,  and  built,  close  to  the  town,  what  was  for  the 
age  a  magnificent  palace.  Valeria  remained  in  the  palace 
of  Galerius,  and  it  seems  that  Prisca  stayed  with  her,  as  we 
shall  presently  find  her  sharing  the  hard  lot  of  her  daughter. 
Why  the  mother,  at  least,  chose  to  remain  in  Nicomedia  is 
left  to  our  imaginations.  The  religion  they  had  favoured 
was  cruelly  suppressed,  and,  if  we  are  to  believe  Lactantius, 
their  virtue  must  have  been  outraged  by  the  unbridled 
license  of  the  new  Emperor.  He  is  described  as  an  ogre, 
dragging  the  noblest  women  of  Nicomedia  from  their 
husbands,  feeding  his  bears  on  innocent  citizens,  and 
"  never  taking  a  meal  without  a  taste  of  human  blood." 
Yet  Valeria  clung  to  her  husband  even  through  the  painful 
and  repulsive  illness  which  ended  his  life ;  and  her  name 
was  given  by  him  to  a  part  of  his  Empire.  The  picture  is 
evidently  overdrawn,  yet  life  in  the  palace,  with  Galerius 
and  his  boorish  relatives,  cannot  have  been  very  congenial, 
and  the  temper  of  Galerius  would  be  soured  by  the  events 
that  followed. 

The  first  mishap  was  the  flight  of  Constantine.  He  had 
been  living  for  some  years  at  the  court  of  Diocletian,  and 
was  deeply  disappointed  and  rightly  indignant  at  the  choice 
of  the  new  Caesars.  By  birth  and  ability  he  had  the 
clearest  title  to  the  purple.  He  was  now  a  tall  and  manly 
young  officer,  handsome,  popular,  and  successful,  and 
anxious  to  join  his  father  Constantius  in  Gaul.  There  is 
little  doubt  that  he  fled  during  the  night,  though  the 
romantic  story  told  by  Lactantius  is  now  generally  re- 
garded as  a  clumsy  piece  of  fiction.  It  describes  Galerius 
as  failing  to  take  the  youth's  life  by  engaging  him  in 
dangerous  contests,  and  at  length  devising  an  ingenious 
scheme.  He  one  night  gives  Constantine  permission  to 
depart  after  he  has  seen  him  in  the  morning,  and  warns 
him  that  he  will  be  put  to  death  if  he  is  still  in  Nicomedia 


THE  WIFE  AND  DAUGHTER  OF  DIOCLETIAN     261 

at  noon.  Then  the  ogre  gives  orders  that  he  is  not  to  be 
awakened  before  noon  on  the  morrow ;  but  the  young  hero 
steals  all  the  horses  in  the  stables — there  were  probably 
hundreds — cripples  all  other  horses  along  his  route,  and 
flies  to  his  father.  The  only  authentic  point  is  that 
Constantine  fled.  He  would  wade  back  through  a  sea  of 
blood.  Within  a  few  months  his  father  was  dead,  Con- 
stantine was  chosen  by  the  army  to  succeed  him,  and 
Galerius  was  forced  to  recognize  him  as  Caesar. 

Galerius  gave  the  title  of  Augustus,  which  Constantius 
had  left  vacant  at  his  death,  to  his  loyal  Severus,  but  he 
was  soon  informed  that  the  troops,  the  people,  and  the 
Senate  had  chosen  another  Emperor  at  Rome.  A  brief 
outline  of  the  stirring  events  that  followed  will  suffice  here. 
The  new  Emperor  was  Maxentius,  son  of  the  retired 
Maximian.  The  father  issued  from  his  retreat  to  join  in 
the  fray,  and  Galerius  was  bound  to  support  Severus. 
Diocletian  looked  on  quietly  from  his  gardens  at  Salona. 
When  Maximian  urged  him  to  return  to  power,  he  said 
that  if  Maximian  could  see  the  vegetables  he  was  growing 
he  would  not  make  such  a  request.  Briefly,  Severus  was 
treacherously  taken  by  Maximian,  and  induced  to  ease  the 
complication  by  taking  his  life.  Maximian,  Galerius,  and 
Diocletian  met  at  Carnuntum,  on  the  Danube,  and  it  was 
settled  that  Galerius  and  Licinius  (one  of  his  officers)  should 
be  recognized  as  Emperors,  and  Constantine  and  Maximin 
(Daza)  as  Caesars.  Maxentius  was  disregarded,  and  Maxi- 
mian was  persuaded  to  retire  once  more.  How  the  restless 
and  ambitious  old  man  then  clung  to  Constantine,  and 
attempted  to  murder  and  displace  him,  we  shall  see  later. 

The  expedition  of  Galerius  into  Italy  proved  disastrous, 
as  he  returned  in  bad  health  and  temper  to  his  dominions. 
He  died  in  311,  of  an  unpleasant  disease,  of  which  the 
morbid  reader  may  find  a  luxurious  description  in  Lactantius. 
Valeria  remained  with  him  to  the  end,  and  then  a  new  and 
more  romantic  chapter  opened  for  her  and  her  mother.  The 
two  Emperors  of  the  East  made  rival  offers  of  their  hospital- 
ity ;  for  Maximin  had  exacted  an  equal  dignity  with  Licinius. 


762  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Valeria  was  at  that  time  in  her  early  thirties,  and  her 
mourning  garments  did  not  detract  from  her  ripe  beauty 
of  face  and  figure.  She  is  represented  as  weighing  the 
respective  immoralities  of  the  two  Eastern  Emperors,  and 
considering  to  which  of  the  two  it  would  be  the  less 
dangerous  to  entrust  her  virtue.  Lactantius  does  not  tell 
us  why  she  was  forced  to  choose  at  all ;  why  she  and  her 
mother  did  not  retire  to  the  luxurious  and  unsullied  palace 
of  Diocletian.  The  end  of  his  life  was  approaching,  it  is 
true,  but  the  palace  would  still  shelter  them.  On  the  other 
hand,  Maximin  and  Licinius  are  both  very  thickly  tarred 
with  the  brush  of  Lactantius.  We  shall  see  something  of 
the  conduct  of  Licinius  later.  As  to  Maximin,  if  one  half 
of  what  Lactantius  and  Eusebius  say  is  true,  he  must  have 
been  known  over  the  whole  Empire  as  an  erotic  maniac. 
He  may  not  have  been  this  romantic  combination  of  Nero, 
Elagabalus,  and  Carinus,  but  we  know  from  other  writers 
that  he  was  much  more  vicious  than  Licinius.  When, 
therefore,  we  find  Valeria  choosing  to  live  in  his  palace,  we 
cannot  repress  a  suspicion  that  the  beautiful  widow  was 
not  quite  so  unworldly  as  she  is  represented  to  have  been. 
She  had  not  been  long  in  her  new  home  when  certain 
officers  came  to  tell  her  that  Maximin  loved  her,  and  was 
prepared  to  divorce  his  wife  and  wed  her.  When  she 
refused,  the  baffled  passion  turned  to  rage,  and  mother  and 
daughter  were  expelled  from  the  palace.  When  we  learn, 
from  a  later  passage,  that  Valeria  refused  to  yield  her  right 
to  the  property  of  Galerius,  the  episode  seems  more  human. 
A  story  of  adultery  was  invented,  a  Jew — the  villain  of 
early  Christian  literature — was  suborned  to  give  false 
evidence,  and  several  of  Valeria's  friends  were  implicated. 
A  number  of  ladies  of  high  rank  were  publicly  executed, 
and  the  Empresses,  spoiled  of  their  goods,  were  driven 
from  province  to  province,  until  they  found  themselves 
lodged  in  a  mean  village  on  the  edge  of  the  Syrian  desert. 
Valeria  contrived  to  acquaint  her  father  with  their  situation, 
but  the  rough  Maximin  rejected  his  feeble  entreaties.  They 
seem  to  have  spent  the  winter  (312-13)  in  this  miserable 


SALONINA 


VALERIA 

ENLARGBU    FROM    COINS    IN    THE    BRITISH    MUSEUM 


THE  WIFE  AND  DAUGHTER  OF  DIOCLETIAN     263 

exile.  The  only  comfort  was  that  they  had  with  them 
Candidian,  a  natural  son  of  Galerius,  whom  Valeria  had 
adopted,  and  Severian,  the  son  of  Severus. 

In  the  early  spring  the  little  group  were  inspirited  by 
the  news  that  the  tyrant  had  fallen  in  a  struggle  with 
Licinius,  who  was  now  sole  Emperor  in  the  East.  What 
follows,  in  the  narrative  of  Lactantius,  is  even  more  obscure, 
and  suggests  still  more  strongly  that  much  is  concealed 
from  us.  Candidian  went  openly  to  the  court  of  Licinius, 
and  was  cordially  received  and  promoted.  The  other 
young  man  followed.  Licinius  was  naturally  hostile  to 
all  who  had  taken  the  side  of  Maximin,  but  he  could  hardly 
be  angry  with  these  poor  victims  of  Maximin's  rage. 
Valeria,  however,  went  in  disguise  to  Nicaea,  where  the 
court  was,  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  her  adopted  son. 

Suddenly  something  happened  which  brought  upon 
them  all  the  sword  of  the  executioner.  What  it  was  we 
can  only  conjecture.  A  writer  like  Lactantius  is  so 
accustomed  to  regard  a  savage  outbreak  on  the  part  of  one 
of  the  last  pagan  Emperors  as  a  natural  event  that  he 
disdains  to  enlighten  us.  A  part  of  the  story  has  been 
concealed,  and  it  would  not  be  fantastic  to  suppose  that 
the  spirited,  young,  and  ambitious  Valeria  meditated  an 
intrigue  for  the  advancement  of  Candidian  to  the  throne. 
It  is  plain  that  Licinius  suspected  this.  The  royal  birth 
and  manly  bearing  of  the  youth  might  suffice  to  draw  such 
a  suspicion  on  him,  but  do  not  plausibly  explain  the  treat- 
ment of  the  Empresses.  Nor  is  there  any  apparent  reason 
for  her  disguise.  She  was  willing,  Lactantius  says,  to 
cede  her  rights  to  Licinius,  and  the  sentence  unjustly 
passed  on  her  by  Maximin  would  have  no  weight  with 
him. 

Whatever  the  cause  of  the  trouble  was,  Valeria  learned 
one  day  that  Candidian  and  Severian  were  arrested,  and 
they  were  presently  executed.  She  fled  to  the  remote 
Syrian  village,  but  she  was  so  plainly  implicated,  in  some 
way,  that  she  dare  not  remain  there.  Dressing  in  the 
rough  robes  of  the  common  people,  the  aged  mother  and 


264  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

her  brilliant  daughter  set  out  on  a  painful  and  aimless 
journey.  Either  a  sentence  of  death  had  been  passed  on 
them,  or  they  had  ground  to  apprehend  one ;  for  their 
flight  would  certainly  elicit  it.  Lactantius  says  that  they 
wandered  in  this  disguise  for  fifteen  months,  but  it  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  they  could  so  long  evade  the 
Imperial  troops  who  hunted  them.^  At  length  they  were 
recognized  and  arrested  in  Thessalonica,  and  the  tragedy 
of  their  unfortunate  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  innocent  lives 
was  brought  to  a  close.  Under  the  eyes  of  the  assembled 
citizens  the  wife  and  daughter  of  the  great  Emperor  were 
beheaded,  and  their  remains  were  contemptuously  flung 
into  the  sea. 

'  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  fifteen  months  of  Lactantius  may  date 
from  their  expulsion  from  the  court  of  Maximin.  This  is  hardly  possible. 
Galerius  died  in  May,  311,  and  Valeria  was  still  in  mourning  for  him,  and 
pleaded  his  recent  death,  when  Maximin  sought  to  wed  her.  Maximin  died 
in  April,  313,  so  that  the  deaths  of  Prisca  and  Valeria  cannot  have  been 
earlier  than  the  summer  of  that  year. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE    FIRST    CHRISTIAN    EMPRESSES 

THE  fourfold  power  which  Diocletian  had  prudently 
set  up  ensured  for  the  Empire  twenty  years  of 
uneventful  prosperity.  The  two  Emperors  and 
their  Caesars  guarded  and  repaired  the  frontiers,  at  which 
the  strong  young  nations  of  the  hills  and  the  forests  were 
now  gathering  in  ominous  numbers,  while  the  body  of  the 
Empire  tranquilly  pursued  its  sluggish  and  debilitated  life. 
But  no  sooner  had  the  balanced  mind  and  the  firm  hand  of 
Diocletian  relinquished  their  control  than  the  system 
revealed  its  weakness.  The  multiplication  of  dignities  led 
to  a  multiplication  of  aspirants  ;  the  distribution  of  power 
inflamed  the  ambition  of  the  stronger  and  less  scrupulous. 
In  one  year  eight  generals  claimed  and  bore  the  title  of 
Augustus,  and  our  stage  is  crowded  with  Empresses. 
Most  of  them,  however,  are  so  poorly  outlined  in  the 
records  of  the  time  that  we  may  neglect  these  faint  conjugal 
shadows  of  inconspicuous  rulers,  and  select  for  considera- 
tion the  three  or  four  more  prominent  consorts  of  the 
Emperors. 

Possibly  the  most  widely  known  of  all  the  Roman 
Empresses,  more  familiar  even  than  the  very  different 
figure  of  Messalina,  is  Helena,  the  mother  of  Constantine. 
The  first  Christian  Empress,  the  generous  supporter  of 
the  early  Church,  the  first  royal  woman  to  find  a  place  in 
the  list  of  the  canonized,  we  turn  to  her  with  eagerness  to 
discover  the  contrast  with  her  pagan  predecessors.  She 
does  not  bear  the  Imperial  title,  and  does  not  properly  fall 

265 


266  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

within  our  range,  until  she  is  advanced  in  years,  but  we 
cannot  understand  her  character  unless  we  glance  first  at 
her  earlier  years. 

In  one  of  his  more  important  sermons  ("  De  Obitu 
Theodosii,"  §  42)  St.  Ambrose  observes  that  she  "  is  said 
to  have  been  a  maid  at  an  inn,"  and  he  so  clearly  accepts 
the  statement  that  historians,  sacred  and  profane,  have  not 
hesitated  to  follow  him.  The  claim  of  another  Roman 
writer,  that  Constantine  had  illumined  Britain  "by 
originating  there,"  gave  rise  at  one  time  to  a  theory  that 
she  was  British,  and  our  learned  commentators  furnished 
so  august  a  lady  with  a  royal  pedigree.  The  phrase  is, 
however,  generally  understood  to  refer  to  the  beginning 
of  Constantine's  Imperial  career,  and  the  native  town  of 
Helena  is  sought  either  in  Dacia  or  in  Nicomedia.  Since 
Constantine  gave  her  name  to  Drepanum,  in  Nicomedia, 
we  may  presume  that  her  first  humble  home  was  in  that 
town,  and  that  she  moved  from  there  to  Naissos,  in 
Dacia,  where  the  birth  of  Constantine  is  usually  placed. 

A  stabulum  was,  in  the  language  of  the  time,  one  of  the 
meaner  inns  in  the  towns  through  which  the  Roman  roads 
ran.  A  stabularia — the  epithet  used  by  St.  Ambrose — was 
a  woman  or  girl  connected  with  the  inn ;  and  those 
temporary  resting-places  for  soldiers  or  merchants  on  their 
journeys  were  so  easy  in  their  ways  that  the  word  was 
sometimes  used  in  an  unpleasant  sense.  We  may  follow 
the  early  tradition  that  Helena  was  the  daughter  of  a  man 
who  kept  one  of  these  inns,  possibly  a  quite  respectable 
establishment,  at  Drepanum,  on  the  way  to  the  city  of 
Nicomedia,  which  Diocletian  had  made  his  capital.  Here, 
in  or  about  the  year  273,  the  young  Roman  officer  Constan- 
tius — later,  for  some  obscure  reason,  called  Constantius  the 
Pale  (Chlorus) — saw  and  fell  in  love  with  Helena.  The 
road  that  ran  through  Drepanum  was  much  used  by  the 
troops,  and  the  encounter  is  placed  at  the  time  when 
Aurelian  was  conducting  his  campaign  against  Zenobia. 
Constantius,  an  excellent  officer  and  the  son  of  a  provincial 
noble  of   some  distinction,  would  then   (273)  be   in   his 


THE  FIRST  CHRISTIAN   EMPRESSES  267 

twenty-third  year.  Helena,  who  was  over  eighty  at  her 
death  in  328,  must  have  been  two  or  three  years  older. 

Historians  have  left  us  a  lengthy  and  learned  debate  on 
the  question  whether  she  was  the  wife  or  the  concubine  of 
Constantius,  and  the  grouping  of  the  combatants  is  singular. 
In  the  Migne  edition  of  the  works  of  the  Fathers  we  find  a 
note  appended  to  the  passage  of  St.  Ambrose,  which  I  have 
quoted,  in  which  the  Benedictine  commentators  observe 
that  "  all  the  writers  on  Roman  affairs  declare  that  Helena 
was  the  concubine,  not  the  wife,  of  Constantius,"  and  they 
adopt  that  view.  Yet  the  critical  Gibbon  defends  "  the 
legality  of  her  marriage  "  with  a  rare  and  edifying  chivalry, 
and  Mr.  Firth,  in  his  recent  biography  of  Constantine, 
asserts  that  it  is  "  beyond  question."  With  such  weighty 
encouragement  ecclesiastical  writers  have  confidently 
deserted  the  Benedictines  and  followed  Gibbon.  Let  us 
first  hear  the  authorities,  and  we  may  not  find  the  problem 
insoluble. 

Bishop  Eusebius,  the  chaplain  of  the  Imperial  family,  as 
one  may  term  him,  would  not  mention  such  a  circumstance 
in  his  "  Life  of  Constantine,"  even  if  he  knew  it  to  be  true  ; 
but  it  is  not  quite  accurate  to  say  peremptorily  that  the 
bishop  never  mentions  it.  In  the  second  book  of  his 
"Chronicle"  {ad annum  310)  we  read  that  Constantine  was 
"  the  son  of  Constantius  by  his  concubine  Helena."  We 
have  no  means  of  determining  if  these  words  were  written 
by  Eusebius  or  added  by  St.  Jerome.^  Even  in  the  latter 
case  it  is  a  weighty  testimony. 

Another  Christian  historian  of  Jerome's  time,  Orosius — 
who  does  not  follow  Zosimus,  as  Gibbon  says,  but  precedes 
him — makes  the  same  statement  (c.  xxv),  and  it  is  later 
repeated  in  the  "  Chronicle "  of  Cassiodorus.  A  writer 
of  the  generation  after  Constantine,  commonly  known  as 
"  Anonymus  Valesii,"  says  (c.  ii)  that  Constantine  was 
"  bom  of  Helena,  a  very  common  [yilissimd]  woman,  in 
the  town  of  Naissus."    Zosimus,  a  century  later,  and  a 

'  The  Greek  original  of  the  "  Chronicle  "  is  lost,  and  Jerome  informs  us 
that  he  has  added  many  details  in  the  Latin  version  which  we  now  have. 


268  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

pagan  critic  of  Constantine,  says  (ii.  8)  that  he  was 
"  born  of  a  woman  who  was  not  respectable  [o-c/^i/?;] 
and  not  legally  married  to  Constantius,"  and  he  later 
observes  that  Maxentius  resented  the  raising  to  the  throne 
of  a  man  whose  mother  was  "  not  a  matron."  Finally,  the 
early  mediaeval  monk,  Zonaras,  says  ("  Annals,"  xiii.  i) : 
"  Some  say  that  she  was  lawfully  married  to  Constantius 
and  divorced  .  .  .  others  that  she  was  not  a  legitimate  wife 
but  a  paramour."  The  grave  and  weighty  Eutropius, 
writing  in  the  generation  after  Constantine,  says  that 
he  was  born  of  "  a  somewhat  ambiguous  [obscuriort] 
marriage." 

The  Benedictines  had  an  ample  authority,  both  Christian 
and  pagan,  for  their  view,  and  only  one  argument  is 
advanced  in  disproof  of  it  by  modern  writers.  Several 
of  the  historians  tell  us  that,  when  Constantius  was  made 
Caesar,  he  was  compelled  by  the  Emperor  to  "divorce" 
Helena,  and,  it  is  said,  divorce  implies  marriage.  The 
argument  is  hardly  conclusive.  When  Eusebius  (or 
Jerome)  tells  us  that  the  Caesars  were  compelled  to  dis- 
miss their  "wives,"  he  adds,  on  the  same  page,  that 
Helena  was  not  a  wife,  but  a  concubine.  He  means 
merely  that  Constantius  was  forced  to  dismiss  Helena 
and  wed  the  daughter  of  Maximian,  and  does  not  imply 
that  any  legal  form  of  divorce  was  employed.  It  is  quite 
open  to  us  to  interpret  the  other  authority,  Aurelius 
Victor,  in  the  same  way ;  and  Zonaras,  the  only  other  writer 
who  could  be  quoted,  expressly  leaves  it  open  whether 
Helena  was  married  or  not.  In  any  case,  the  single 
authority  of  Aurelius  Victor  cannot  outweigh  the  others, 
and  even  his  words  do  not  necessarily  imply  a  legal  divorce 
on  the  part  of  both  Caesars. 

But  there  is  another  aspect  of  the  question,  which  is 
usually  overlooked.  Could  there  be  a  valid  marriage 
between  Helena  and  Constantius  in  Roman  law  ?  When 
we  regard  the  subject  from  this  point  of  view,  we  see 
that  Constantius  could  not  possibly  have  married  Helena 
before  the  birth  of   Constantine,   and,  unless   her    legal 


THE   FIRST  CHRISTIAN   EMPRESSES  269 

condition  was  subsequently  altered  by  a  special  enactment, 
their  union  could  never  become  a  valid  marriage.  As  I 
have  earlier  observed,  the  strict  and  ancient  forms  of 
Roman  marriage  had  fallen  very  generally  out  of  use 
under  the  Emperors.  They  had  had  the  effect  of  putting 
the  wife  under  the  despotic  power  of  the  husband,  and 
Roman  feeling  in  regard  to  the  position  of  woman  had 
entirely  changed.  Looser  forms  of  marriage,  which  evaded 
the  older  tyranny  of  the  husband,  were  generally  employed 
and  legally  recognized.  If  a  man  and  woman  lived  together 
uninterruptedly  for  twelve  months — without  three  nights' 
interruption — their  union  might  become  a  valid  marriage. 
Below  this  was  the  legally  recognized  concubine.  The 
ease  with  which  Christian  writers  admitted  that  Helena 
was  a  concubine  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Church,  as 
well  as  the  law,  permitted  a  concubine,  if  a  man  had  no 
wife.  As  late  as  the  year  400,  the  important  provincial 
Council  of  Toledo  decided  that  such  a  man  and  his  con- 
cubine were  to  be  admitted  to  communion.  St.  Augustine, 
we  shall  see,  went  even  further.  Below  these,  again, 
were  the  ordinary  paramours,  the  mistresses  of  a  month 
or  the  playthings  of  an  hour,  which  Stoic  and  Christian 
equally  condemned. 

The  real  question  we  have  to  decide  is,  therefore, 
whether  the  long  association  of  Constantius  and  Helena 
could  ever  be  recognized  as  a  valid  marriage  in  Roman 
law.  That  they  went  through  any  form  of  marriage  in 
273  could  only  occur  to  a  writer  who  knows  nothing  of 
Roman  law  or  practice.  A  young  officer,  taking  a  girl 
from  a  tavern  in  a  small  provincial  town  on  his  route, 
would  not  dream  ol  any  such  ceremony ;  and  no  ceremony 
would  have  been  valid  in  Roman  law.  Whatever  the 
legal  condition  of  Constantius  was,  Helena  was,  to  Roman 
law,  a  barbarian,  or  peregrina,  and  could  not  contract  a 
valid  marriage.^    We  need  little  acquaintance  with  Roman 

'  One  of  the  most  authoritative  works  on  Roman  institutions,  Marquardt 
and  Mommseu's  "  Handbuch,"  says  this  emphatically :  "  Ehen,  bei  welchen 
der  eine  Theil  derROmischen  Biirgerschaft,  der  Andere  den  Latinern  jQngeren 


270  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

life  to  imagine  what  happened.  Constantius  felt  for  the 
young  woman  he  found  at  the  country  inn  a  more  tender 
sentiment  than  that  usually  entertained  by  the  young 
centurion  or  tribune  on  travel,  and  he  took  her  to  live 
with  him.  I  do  not  see  how  this  relation  ever  could 
become  a  valid  marriage,  nor  is  there  any  clear  proof 
that  they  were  ever  legally  divorced.  At  the  most,  it 
remains  "  a  questionable  marriage,"  as  Eutropius  calls  it, 
and  it  began  as  a  free  union. 

From  Nicomedia  Constantius's  troop  seems  to  have 
passed,  possibly  after  sharing  Aurelian's  triumph  at  Rome, 
to  Thrace,  where  Constantine  is  said  to  have  been  born 
in  the  year  274.  Helena  narrowly  missed  the  dignity  of 
Empress  a  few  years  later,  as  Carus  had  some  disposition 
to  leave  the  purple  to  Constantius.  The  mother  of  Con- 
stantius had  been  a  niece  of  the  Emperor  Claudius,  and 
his  father  was  one  of  the  chief  nobles  of  Dardania.  But 
the  accession  of  Carinus  dispelled  this  hope,  and  Helena 
followed  her  husband  from  province  to  province,  and 
grade  to  grade,  until,  in  292,  he  was  selected  for  the  lofty 
position  of  Caesar  of  the  West.  But  with  the  purple  came 
a  command  that  he  must  dismiss  his  concubine,  and  marry 
the  stepdaughter  of  Maximian,  Flavia  Maximiana  Theodora. 
From  that  date  until  the  year  of  her  son's  brilliant  triumph 
Helena  passes  into  complete  obscurity. 

Meantime  other  Empresses  occupy  the  pages  of  the 
historian.  Theodora,  of  whom  we  have  just  spoken,  is 
one  of  those  Empresses  whose  propriety  of  conduct  and 
mediocrity  of  person  have  not  attracted  the  lamp  of  the 
historian.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Eutropia,  the  Syrian 
wife  of  Maximian,  by  a  former  husband.  Three  boys  and 
three  girls  came  of  her  union  with  Constantius,  and  she 
seems  to  have  been  a  worthy  consort  of  that  judicious 

Rechtea  oder  den  Peregrinen  angehOrte,  sind  nach  ROmischen  Recht  nicht 
gultig"  (vii.  29).  Gdteke,  in  a  special  study  of  the  subject  ("  Constantinum 
honeste  et  ex  legitimo  matrimonio  natum"),  says  that  special  edicts  made  it 
impossible  for  an  officer  to  marry  in  the  province  in  which  he  served.  He 
believes  that  the  effect  of  these  would  not  be  permanent,  but  he  fails  to 
consider  Helena's  disability  as  Aperegrina. 


THE  FIRST  CHRISTIAN  EMPRESSES  271 

and  happy  ruler.  The  full  Imperial  title  passed  to  them 
when  Maximian  abdicated  in  305,  and  the  handsome  and 
spirited  Constantine  joined  them  at  Gessoriacum  (Boulogne), 
after  his  romantic  flight  from  Nicomedia,  in  that  or  the 
following  year.  They  crossed  to  Britain,  and  suppressed 
a  rebellion  that  was  in  progress.  But  Constantius  died 
at  Eboracum  (York)  in  the  summer  of  306,  and  the  un- 
ambitious Theodora  passes  from  our  sight. 

Constantius  had,  with  a  last  display  of  prudence, 
preferred  his  eldest  son  to  the  legitimate  children  of  his 
wife,  and  probably  little  money  needed  to  be  distributed 
among  the  legions  to  ensure  that  they  should  recognize 
his  superiority.  Constantine  was  then  in  his  early  man- 
hood, a  commanding  and  graceful  figure,  in  the  finest 
phase  of  his  character,  and  the  troops  followed  him  with 
alacrity  from  the  cold  mists  of  north  Britain  to  more 
genial  and  more  cultivated  Gaul.  From  Gaul  the  young 
Caesar  watched  with  close  interest  the  quarrels  in  which 
his  colleagues  prepared  to  devour  each  other.  In  February 
of  307  he  heard  that  Severus  had  opened  his  veins,  and 
left  the  purple  in  the  hands  of  the  crafty  Maximian  and 
his  son  Maxentius.  Within  a  few  weeks  Maximian  was  in 
Gaul,  seeking  an  alliance  with  Constantine.  He  brought 
with  him  his  pretty  and  charming  daughter,  Fausta,  and 
presently  she  was  married  at  Aries,  with  great  pomp,  to 
Constantine,  the  stepson  of  her  half-sister.  The  old  man 
returned  to  his  intrigues  in  Italy,  from  which  he  was 
shortly  ejected  by  his  son :  Galerius  expelled  him  from 
Illyricum,  where  he  had  taken  shelter;  and  he  returned 
to  the  court  of  his  son-in-law  in  Gaul. 

The  portrait-bust  of  Maximian  might  be  confused  with 
that  of  a  modern  pugilist,  but  he  had,  in  addition  to 
strength  and  ambition,  a  restless  disposition  to  intrigue. 
To  rust  in  a  court  full  of  women — for  we  may  confidently 
place  in  the  court  of  Constantine  his  wife,  mother,  step- 
mother, mother-in-law,  and  three  young  half-sisters,  if  not 
also  his  concubine — was  to  him  an  intolerable  experience, 
and  he  took  the  first  opportunity  of  enlivening  his  sur- 


272  THE  EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

Foundings.  An  inroad  of  the  barbarians  in  the  north 
drew  away  the  young  Emperor  with  much  of  his  army, 
and  Maximian  rebelled.  He  gave  out  a  report  that 
Constantine  was  dead,  emptied  the  treasury  into  the 
hands  of  the  soldiers,  and  assumed  the  purple  mantle 
once  more.  But  Constantine  returned  with  the  stride  of 
a  giant,  and  Maximian  shut  himself  in  Marseilles,  which 
was  presently  surrendered.  The  aged  intriguer  returned 
to  the  palace,  tried  to  corrupt  the  loyalty  of  his  daughter, 
and  brought  upon  himself  the  punishment  of  his  crimes. 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  time  that,  the  more  remote  an 
historian  is  from  an  event,  the  more  he  knows  about  it. 
Eutropius  and  Zosimus  merely  know  that  Fausta  revealed 
her  father's  plots  to  her  husband ;  Zonaras,  of  the  twelfth 
century,  is  able  to  tell  us  the  whole  story.  Maximian,  he 
says,  persuaded  his  daughter  to  have  the  guards  removed 
from  the  Imperial  chamber  at  night.  Then,  telling  the 
night-attendants  that  he  wished  to  relate  to  Constantine 
a  remarkable  dream  he  had  had,  he  entered  the  chamber 
and  plunged  his  dagger  into  the  sleeping  figure  on  the 
bed.  Rushing  out  to  announce  the  fall  of  the  tyrant, 
however,  he  found  himself  in  face  of  Constantine,  Fausta, 
and  the  guards.  Fausta  had  been  true  to  her  husband, 
and  it  was  "  a  vile  eunuch  "  that  Maximian  had  slain  in 
the  Emperor's  bed.  Whatever  truth  there  may  be  in 
this  romance,  we  may  accept  the  statement  that  Fausta 
betrayed  his  plots,  and  Maximian  came  to  the  end  of  his 
career.  Zosimus  sends  him  into  exile,  and  makes  him 
die  a  natural  death  at  Tarsus.  Lactantius,  with  a  stronger 
sense  of  propriety,  tells  us  that  he  strangled  himself,  and  it 
is  the  general  belief  that  Constantine  did  not  permit  him 
to  leave  Gaul  alive. 

Galerius  died  in  the  following  year  (311),  leaving  the 
Eastern  Empire  to  Licinius  and  Maximin,  while  Maxentius 
ruled  in  Italy  and  Africa.  Four  Empresses  now  lived  in 
the  court  of  Constantine,  but  before  we  seek  to  penetrate 
the  mystery  of  their  relations  to  each  other,  we  must 
briefly  accompany  Constantine  in  his  rise  to  the  position 


THE  FIRST   CHRISTIAN   EMPRESSES  273 

of  supreme  monarch.  Maxentius,  who  had  expelled  his 
father  from  Italy,  now  affected  a  filial  anger  against  his 
destroyer,  and,  after  some  exasperated  correspondence,  sent 
toward  Gaul  an  army  of  nearly  200,000  men.  Constantine 
boldly  led  40,000  of  his  soldiers  across  the  Alps,  wore 
down  the  strength  of  his  opponent  in  successive  encoun- 
ters, and,  within  a  few  months,  exhibited  the  grisly  head 
of  Maxentius  to  the  astonished  and  delighted  Romans. 
He  was  now  master  of  the  Western  Empire.  Devoting  two 
months  to  the  settlement  of  Roman  affairs,  he  returned  to 
Milan  to  meet  his  Eastern  colleague  Licinius.  His  half- 
sister  Constantia  was  married  there  to  Licinius,  who 
returned  to  Asia  with  his  bride,  to  crush  Maximin,  and  to 
perpetrate  the  melancholy  tragedies  over  which  we  shud- 
dered in  the  last  chapter.  Anastasia,  the  second  daughter 
of  Constantius,  was  married  to  the  Senator  Bassianus. 
Constantine  made  him  Caesar,  but  put  no  troops  at  his 
command — he  had  just  suppressed  the  Praetorian  Guards 
at  Rome — and  refused  to  grant  him  the  authority  that  had 
hitherto  been  associated  with  the  title  of  Caesar.  Bassianus 
corresponded  angrily  with  Licinius,  and  before  the  end 
of  315  the  Emperors  of  the  East  and  West  were  in  arms 
against  each  other. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  share  the  daugh- 
ters of  Constantius  had  in  promoting  these  disorders. 
The  correspondence  of  Bassianus  and  Licinius  suggests  a 
•correspondence  of  their  wives,  and,  when  Bassianus  was 
deposed  and  disgraced,  we  may  assume  that  Constantia 
was  not  insensible  of  the  misfortune  of  her  younger  sister. 
The  superior  age  and  abihty  of  Constantine  would  hardly 
reconcile  the  legitimate  children  of  Constantius  to  their 
position  of  dependence.  Constantia  is  sometimes  repre- 
sented as  a  pious  peacemaker,  but  we  do  not  find  her  in 
that  character  until  her  husband's  power  is  irremediably 
broken,  after  the  second  war  with  Constantine.  She  fled 
in  great  haste  with  her  husband  after  the  first  defeat,  and 
returned  with  him  to  Nicomedia,  to  rule  his  reduced 
dominions. 
18 


274  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

The  court-life  of  the  West  flowed  with  uneventful 
smoothness  in  the  eight  years  between  the  first  and  second 
war  with  Licinius.  The  only  break  in  the  monotony  is 
the  birth  of  three  sons  and  three  daughters  in  quick  suc- 
cession. Zosimus  emphatically  asserts  that  these  were  not 
the  children  of  Fausta,  but  of  a  concubine,  whom  Con- 
stantine  put  to  death  on  a  charge  of  adultery.  We  are 
naturally  disposed  to  regard  this  as  a  piece  of  reprehensible 
malice  on  the  part  of  the  pagan  writer,  but  even  the  most 
cautious  judgment  will  find  ground  for  reflection  in  the 
circumstance  that  Fausta  had  borne  no  children  whatever 
for  the  first  nine  years  of  her  marriage,  and  then  children 
begin  to  appear  with  astonishing  rapidity.  We  know  that 
Constantine  had  had  a  concubine,  named  Minervina,  before 
he  married  Fausta.  Her  son  Crispus  lived  at  the  court. 
It  would  not  be  entirely  surprising  if  Minervina  had 
returned  to  the  court,  to  rear  the  Imperial  dynasty  which 
Fausta  failed  to  provide,  and  was  eventually  destroyed  in 
one  of  Constantine's  bursts  of  temper.^ 

In  the  Eastern  court  the  young  Empress  had,  if  we 
trust  the  authorities,  a  more  adventurous  career.  Con- 
stantia  cannot  have  been  more  than  seventeen  or  eighteen 
at  the  time  of  her  marriage,  but  she  was  a  woman  of  spirit 
and  ability,  as  well  as  virtue  and  beauty.  It  is  said  that 
she,  with  the  whole  court,  became  a  Christian  after  Con- 
stantine's victory  over  Maxentius,  but  the  story  of  the 
miraculous  sign  in  the  heavens — a  story  that  is  not  found* 
in  any  form  until  thirty  years  afterwards — is  now  rejected, 
and  the  conversion  of  Constantine  is  spread  over  many 
years.  At  Nicomedia,  however,  where  Constantia  occupied 
the  magnificent  palace  built  by  Diocletian,  she  met  the 

*  The  question  may  be  raised  whether  St  Augustine  had  not  the  case  of 
Constantine  in  mind  when,  in  his  moral  treatise  "De  Bono  Conjugali,"  he 
refuses  to  condemn  a  man  who,  having  a  barren  wife,  takes  a  concubine  in 
addition,  to  provide  a  family.  It  is  clear,  at  least,  that  early  Christian  opinion 
was  not  fixed.  Gibbon  again  improves  upon  Christian  writers  by  holding 
that  Minervina  was  an  earlier  wife,  not  a  concubine,  of  Constantine ;  but,  as 
Professor  Bury  points  out,  the  document  on  which  he  relies  does  not  apply  to 
that  Emperor. 


THE  FIRST  CHRISTIAN  EMPRESSES  275 

accomplished  and  courtly  Eusebius,  and  induced  Licinius 
to  allow  him  the  position  of  Bishop  of  Nicomedia.  Two 
things,  it  is  said,  then  transpired  in  the  character  of 
Licinius  to  excite  her  disgust.  He  not  only  persecuted  the 
Christians,  but  made  equal  war  upon  virtue.  In  brief,  he, 
like  all  the  other  persecutors,  is  depicted  by  the  flowing 
pen  of  Lactantius  as  an  erotic  ogre.  His  eye  falls  on  a 
Christian  maiden,  of  dazzling  beauty  and  virtue,  in  the 
suite  of  Constantia,  and  he  sends  an  officer  to  corrupt 
her.  She  tells  Constantia,  who  dresses  her  as  a  young 
military  officer,  and  sends  her,  with  a  splendid  equipage, 
to  take  an  imaginary  Imperial  commission  to  a  remote 
region.  In  the  distant  city  of  Amasia  she  is  embarrassed 
by  her  masculine  hosts,  and  confides  in  the  bishop. 
Finally,  a  letter  of  hers  to  Constantia  is  intercepted,  and 
she  escapes  by  a  very  timely  death  from  the  embraces  or 
the  tortures  of  Licinius. 

Of  these  wicked  ways,  and  of  her  husband's  hostility 
to  the  Christians,  Constantia  is  said  to  have  kept  her 
brother  well  informed,  and,  when  Licinius  committed  the 
greater  enormity  of  refusing  to  surrender  fugitive  off'enders 
to  the  vengeance  of  Constantine,  the  legions  were  once 
more  led  toward  the  Bosphorus.  Several  disastrous  battles 
crippled  the  power  of  Licinius,  and  he  retired  sullenly  to 
Nicomedia.  Whether  at  his  request  or  no,  Constantia 
interceded  for  him,  and  Constantine  swore  to  respect  his 
life.  In  assigning  the  blame  for  the  war  we  may,  perhaps, 
hesitate  between  the  contradictory  charges  of  the  opposing 
schools  of  historians,  though  modern  writers  usually  follow 
the  neutral  and  sober  Eutropius,  and  ascribe  it  to  the 
ambition  of  Constantine.  But  there  is  a  sharper  indict- 
ment of  Constantine's  conduct  after  the  war.  Licinius, 
in  surrendering,  had  relied  on  the  oath  of  the  conqueror. 
He  had  been  stripped  of  the  purple,  and  exiled  to  Thessa- 
lonica,  but  he  was  put  to  death  there  shortly  afterwards. 
Zosimus  and  Eutropius  say  that  this  was  done  "  in  spite 
of  the  oath,"  and  the  statement  of  Constantine's  more 
resolute  admirers,  that  Licinius  was  discovered  in  treason- 


276  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

able  intrigue,  has  not  carried  much  conviction  with  later 
historians. 

Constantia  passed,  with  her  daughter  Helena  and  her 
boy  Licinius,  to  the  court  of  her  brother,  who  was  now 
(324)  master  of  the  whole  Empire.  The  remark  of  Zosimus, 
that  Constantine  degenerated  into  the  most  wilful  license 
after  his  attainment  of  supreme  power — a  remark  feebly 
supported  by  the  assurance  of  the  cautious  Eutropius  that 
••  prosperity  somewhat  altered  his  character  " — contrasts 
quaintly  with  the  circumstance  that  he  now  became  the 
Imperial  patron  of  the  Christian  religion.  Here,  again,  we 
hesitate  between  conflicting  accounts,  or  rival  romances. 
According  to  the  mediaeval  Christian  writer  Zonaras,  who 
supplies  a  remarkable  amount  of  detail  that  was  unknown 
to  contemporary  historians,  the  conversion  of  Constantine 
had  a  picturesque  origin.  On  his  return  to  Rome,  after 
crushing  Licinius,  he  was  afflicted  with  a  painful  eruption, 
and  his  pagan  physicians  prescribed  a  bath  in  the  warm 
blood  of  children.  "At  once,"  says  the  lively  writer, 
"children  were  collected  from  the  whole  Empire,"  and 
dispatched  to  the  palace.  The  lamentations  of  the  mothers 
fell  on  the  ear  of  Constantine,  touched  his  heart,  and  he 
left  paganism  in  disgust  for  Christianity. 

The  pagan  Greek,  Zosimus,  who  at  least  faithfully 
reproduces  the  pagan  gossip  of  his  time — as,  on  this  point, 
we  know  from  Sozomen — gives  us  the  legend  of  his  school. 
After  committing  certain  murders,  which  will  occupy  us 
presently,  Constantine  applied  to  the  priests  of  the  temple 
of  Jupiter  for  purification.  The  priests  sternly  replied 
that  their  lustral  water  had  no  power  to  obliterate  the 
trace  of  such  a  crime,  and  Constantine  turned  in  despair 
to  an  Egyptian  who  was  known  to  "the  women-folk"  of 
the  palace.  The  Christian  priest,  as  he  seems  to  have 
been,  declared  that  his  religion  contained  the  desired 
remedy,  and  Constantine  embraced  it. 

It  will  be  seen  that  we  now  pursue  our  biographic  way 
amid  a  forest  of  legends.  Happily,  we  may  reject  both 
these  stories  as,  at  least,  anachronisms.    Constantine  was 


THE  FIRST  CHRISTIAN  EMPRESSES  277 

already  a  Christian  in  324.  He  had  abolished  the  decrees 
of  persecution  in  the  year  313,  and  had  taken  a  keen 
interest  in  Church  matters  for  some  years.  The  whole 
court  gradually  accepted  the  new  faith.  Helena,  Eusebius 
tells  us,  and  Fausta  for  some  time  opposed  the  change 
of  religion,  but  Helena  at  least  was  converted.  Eutropia 
appears  in  the  East  a  few  years  later  as  a  zealous  opponent 
of  paganism.  From  their  several  and  ample  purses  the 
money  poured  into  the  lean  coffers  of  the  Church,  and 
the  conversion  of  the  Empire  proceeded  rapidly.  Villages 
that  embraced  Christianity  were  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
cities ;  nobles  and  officers  were  encouraged  by  promotion ; 
and  ordinary  citizens  were  rewarded  with  a  baptismal 
robe  and  a  piece  of  gold. 

It  is  not  for  us  to  inquire  into  the  obscure  question  of 
Constantine's  real  attitude.  Professor  Bury  and  other 
eminent  authorities  believe  that  his  creed  was  a  liberal, 
or  vague,  one  until  his  death.  Years  afterwards  we  find 
him  building  pagan  temples  at  Constantinople,  and  he  did 
not  disdain  the  Imperial  title  of  Sovereign  Pontiff  of  the 
old  religion.  On  the  other  hand,  the  details  collected  by 
Mr.  Firth  show  a  very  real  interest  in  the  Church.  He 
opened  the  great  Council  of  Nicaea  in  the  year  325,  and 
reverently  kissed  the  wounds  of  those  who  had  suffered 
in  the  persecution.  Yet  even  amid  this  evidence  of  ortho- 
doxy the  hesitating  student  will  find  trace  of  his  liberality. 
In  the  letter  which  he  sent  to  the  Catholic  bishops  he 
complained  that  the  subject  of  their  vehement  quarrel  with 
the  Arians  was  "  quite  insignificant,  and  entirely  dispro- 
portionate to  such  a  quarrel."'  The  question  at  issue  was 
the  divinity  of  Christ.  His  experience  at  the  Council 
would  give  him  a  larger  sense  of  its  importance. 

From  the  benedictions  of  the  prelates  and  the  embraces 
of  the  martyrs  Constantine  returned  to  Europe,  and, 
within  a  year,  apparently,  his  court  was  rent  by  a  tragedy 
that  has  left  an  irremovable  cloud  on  his  memory.  He 
had  gone  to  Rome,  with  the  court,  to  celebrate  the  twentieth 
anniversary  of  his  accession.    The  city  exulted  in  the  rare 


2/8  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

indulgence  of  his  presence,  and  the  games  and  festivities 
warmed  it  with  its  old  enthusiasm.  The  Empire  was 
united  and  at  peace,  and  the  growing  brood  of  children 
gave  promise  of  an  unending  dynasty.  Crispus,  Con- 
stantine's  eldest  son,  was  now  a  popular  and  promising 
commander,  clothed  in  the  mantle  of  a  Caesar.  Two  of 
the  sons  of  Fausta,  or  her  substitute,  were  Caesars.  Then 
there  was  the  twelve-year-old  son  of  Constantia.  Over 
these  watched  the  aged  Helena  and  Eutropia,  and  the 
mothers  and  aunts  of  the  younger  children. 

In  the  middle  of  the  festivity  Rome  was  startled  to 
hear  that  Crispus  had  been  arrested,  by  his  father's 
command,  and  exiled  to  Pola,  in  Istria.  From  that  remote 
and  solitary  region  the  report  at  length  came  that  he  had 
been  put  to  death.  Every  eye  was  turned  on  the  palace, 
and  before  long — most  of  the  historians  say— the  gay 
figure  of  the  beautiful  young  Empress  disappeared,  and 
the  report  spread  that  she  had  been  brutally  suffocated 
in  the  steam  of  a  dense  vapour-bath.  The  horror  was 
increased,  and  the  prospect  of  a  humane  interpretation 
lessened,  when  it  was  learned  that  the  innocent  child 
of  Constantia  also  had  been  put  to  death.  Such  is  the 
grave  and  mysterious  tragedy  of  Constantine's  mature 
years.  As  Fausta  has  been  heavily  indicted  by  those  who 
have  sought  to  defend  her  husband,  and  Helena  impeached 
by  his  accusers,  we  may  glance  at  the  evidence  on  which 
one's  verdict  must  be  based. 

There  are  partisan  historians  who  would  cast  doubt 
on  the  whole  story ;  there  are  more  serious  historians, 
such  as  Gibbon  (who  again  gallantly  opposes  the  critics), 
who  say  that  Fausta,  at  least,  was  not  slain ;  and  the  rest 
are  divided  in  opinion  as  to  whether  it  was  a  just  execution 
or  a  ghastly  crime.  The  first  two  opinions  are  now 
untenable.  There  is  no  serious  dispute  that  Crispus  and 
Licinius  were  put  to  death.  That  Fausta  was  killed  is 
now  equally  established.  Gibbon  relied  upon  a  certain 
anonymous  writer  to  show  that  Fausta  was  living  long  after- 
wards, but  it  has  been  shown  that  the  writer  is  not  speaking 


THE   FIRST  CHRISTIAN   EMPRESSES  279 

of  Fausta  and  Constantine.  Moreover,  Dr.  Seeck,  in  a 
special  study  of  the  evidence  ("  Die  Verwandtenmorde 
Constantins  des  Grossen,"  Zeitschrift  fiir  IViss.  TheoL, 
Bd.  33),  has  shown  that  the  coins  of  Fausta  and  Crispus, 
unlike  those  of  the  other  members  of  the  Imperial  family, 
end  before  the  year  330.  Dr.  GOrres,  who  held  Gibbon's 
view,  consents  that  this  proof  is  decisive.  The  only  serious 
question  is  that  of  motive  or  justification. 

Let  us  glance  at  the  authorities,  in  the  order  of  their 
nearness  to  the  event.  Bishop  Eusebius  is  naturally 
silent ;  he  professes  to  give  only  the  things  that  edify  in 
the  life  of  Constantine,  and  is  writing  almost  in  his  son's 
court.  Eutropius,  the  soundest  and  most  impartial  writer 
of  the  next  generation,  says  (x.  6)  that  the  character  of 
Constantine  "  was  somewhat  changed  with  prosperity," 
and  that  "  following  the  exigencies  of  the  situation 
[necesstiudmes  rerum'],  he  put  to  death,  first  his  excellent 
son  and  the  son  of  his  sister,  a  boy  of  promising  character, 
then  his  wife  and  a  number  of  friends."  St.  Jerome,  in 
his  Latin  version  of  the  "  Chronicle "  of  Eusebius,  writes, 
at  the  year  329,  that  "  Crispus,  the  son  of  Constantine, 
and  Licinius  the  younger,  the  son  of  Constantia,  are  most 
cruelly  put  to  death  in  the  ninth  year  of  his  reign,"  and 
three  years  later  we  read  :  "  Constantine  put  to  death 
his  wife  Fausta."  *  Dr.  Seeck  believes  that  we  have  here 
only  an  echo  of  Eutropius,  but  Jerome  would  hardly  add 
"  most  cruelly "  on  so  cautious  a  narrative.  Aurelius 
Victor,  a  contemporary  of  Eutropius,  says  that  Crispus 
"  was  put  to  death  by  his  father  for  some  unknown  reason," 
and  Orosius,  the  Christian  historian,  merely  observes 
that  Constantine  put  Crispus  and  Licinius  to  death. 

From  these  earlier  writers  we  learn  only  that  the  deaths 
were  cruel,  and  the  motive  unknown,  but  later  writers 
have  successively  built  up  a  story  that  has  provoked  endless 

*  It  is  from  the  confusion  of  dates  that  I  ascribe  the  words  confidently 
to  Jerome,  and  not  Eusebius  The  words  "  ninth  year  "  can  only  refer  to 
the  ninth  year  of  the  Caesarate  of  Crispus,  or  326.  The  interval  of  three 
years  has  no  significance  in  view  of  the  confusion  of  dates. 


28o  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

discussion.  Sidonius  Apollinaris,  the  most  cultivated  and 
liberal  Christian  writer  of  the  fifth  century,  says,  with  the 
confidence  of  a  parenthesis  (Ep.  v),  that  Crispus  was 
poisoned,  and  Fausta  killed  in  a  vapour-bath ;  and  that 
a  couplet  was  fixed  on  the  palace-gate  recalling  the  crimes 
of  Nero.  The  epitomist  of  Aurelius  Victor  declares  that 
Crispus  was  put  to  death  at  the  instigation  of  Fausta, 
and  Fausta  was  "  thereupon "  killed  in  a  vapour-bath,  as 
Helena  bitterly  reproached  Constantine  for  the  death  of 
Crispus.  Zosimus  (ii.  29)  says  :  "  With  no  regard  for  the 
law  of  nature  he  put  to  death  his  son  Crispus,  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  suspected  of  intimacy  with  Fausta," 
and,  when  Helena  heavily  reproached  him,  he,  "  as  if  to 
console  her,"  suffocated  Fausta  in  an  overheated  bath. 
Philostorgius,  a  Christian  writer  of  the  same  (fifth)  century, 
declares  that  Fausta  was  put  to  death  because  she  was 
caught  in  adultery  with  a  groom.  The  story  culminates  in 
the  twelfth-century  annalist  Zonaras.  After  telling  his 
incredible  legend  about  Constantine  and  the  babies,  he 
represents  Fausta  in  the  character  of  Potiphar's  wife.  She 
conceived  a  passion  for  the  handsome  Caesar,  was  repelled 
by  him,  and  then  denounced  him  to  Constantine  as  having 
offered  violence  to  her.  Crispus  was  put  to  death.  Then 
Constantine  learned  in  some  way — Helena  is  left  to  the 
imagination — that  he  had  been  deceived,  and  he  angrily 
killed  Fausta  in  a  vapour-bath. 

It  is  remarkable  how  many  grave  writers  have  favoured 
this  legend  of  the  mediaeval  writer,^  yet,  besides  its  obvious 
growth  through  the  centuries,  it  has  the  fatal  weakness 
of  throwing  no  light  whatever  on  the  murder  of  Licinius, 
the  son  c*"  Constantine's  most  cherished  sister.  We  are 
reduced  to  conjecture  in  face  of  tuis  mysterious  and 
terrible  tragedy.    That  the  youths  met  with  some  violent 

'  Gibbon,  Professor  Bury,  and  Mr.  Firth  make  Zosimus  coincide  with 
Zonaras.  The  reader  will  see  from  my  literal  translation  of  his  words  that 
he  differs  very  materially.  He  does  not  suggest  that  Fausta  accused 
Crispus,  or  that  she  was  really  guilty  of  any  misconduct ;  but  he  pointedly 
accuses  Helena. 


FAUSTA 


FLAVIA   HELENA 

ENLARGED    FROM    COINS    IN    THE    BRITISH    MUSEUM' 


I 


THE   FIRST  CHRISTIAN   EMPRESSES  281 

death  at  the  hands  of  the  Emperor,  that  Helena  bitterly 
remonstrated  with  him,  and  that  the  savage  suffocation 
of  Fausta  followed  this  remonstrance,  seems  to  be  clear. 
We  may  further  conclude  with  some  confidence,  from  the 
persistent  rumour  of  amorous  relations,  that  this  charge 
was  allowed  to  reach  the  outside  world  in  extenuation  of 
the  murders.  But  it  is  suspected  by  many  historians,  and 
seems  to  be  suggested  by  the  obscure  language  of  Eutro- 
pius,  that  the  real  motive  was  political. 

Crispus  was  in  great  favour  with  both  the  people  and 
the  troops,  and  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  war  with 
Licinius.  If  anything  happened  to  Constantine,  who  was 
in  his  fifty-second  year,  Crispus  had  a  clear  prospect  of 
the  throne.  It  would  not  be  unnatural  for  Fausta  to 
resent  this,  and  one  is  tempted  to  see,  either  an  effect 
of  her  importunity  or  a  proof  of  Constantine's  jealousy 
of  his  son,  in  the  fact  that  Constantine  took  away  the 
province  of  Gaul  from  Crispus,  without  compensation,  in 
323,  and  gave  it  to  the  eldest  of  his  legitimate  sons. 
From  that  time  Crispus  was  retained  in  idleness,  and 
probably  discontent,  under  the  eye  of  his  father.  He 
would  be  a  natural  focus  for  all  the  dissatisfaction  in  the 
Empire,  and  the  Romans,  and  pagans  generally,  regarded 
Constantine  and  his  family  with  anger  and  disdain  on 
account  of  their  abandonment  of  the  old  religion.  By 
the  year  326  Constantine  was  in  a  state  of  extraordinary 
nervousness  and  suspicion.  Before  going  to  Rome  he 
issued  an  edict  in  which  he  revealed  his  frame  of  mind 
to  the  whole  Empire.  At  Rome  he  flouted  the  most 
cherished  customs  of  the  city,  and  may  well  have  incurred 
fresh  murmurs.  Something  occurred  that  brought  his 
suspicion  of  Crispus — who  may  not  have  become  a  Chris- 
tian— to  an  acute  stage,  and  he  condemned  him  to  exile 
and  death.  This  theory  is  also  the  only  one  to  explain, 
with  any  plausibility,  the  execution  of  young  Licinius. 
He  was  the  only  other  rival  of  Constantine's  legitimate 
sons.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  say  whether  Crispus  had 
incurred  any  guilt  or  no,  but  the  silence  of  the  earlier 


282  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

writers  and  panegyrists  is  a  grave  circumstance.  If  there 
had  been  plausible  evidence  of  conspiracy  they  would 
not  have  remained  silent.  In  any  case,  the  sentence  on 
Crispus  was  harsh  and  unjustifiable,  and  the  execution  of  a 
twelve-year-old  boy  was  a  piece  of  brutality  that  only 
the  worse  Emperors  would  have  perpetrated. 

The  murder  of  Fausta  is  even  more  perplexing.  Even 
if  the  late  and  negligible  stories  of  Philostorgius  and 
Zonaras  were  true,  she  was  not  executed,  but  brutally 
murdered.  The  only  firm  point  in  the  conflicting  evidence 
is  the  persistent  association  of  her  death  with  the  anger 
of  Helena.  We  have  no  evidence  of  any  value  in  regard 
to  her  relation  to  Crispus ;  but  the  words  of  Zosimus, 
which  are  not  inconsistent  with  the  earlier  writers,  en- 
able us  to  extend  the  above  theory  to  her.  Constantine, 
on  this  view,  put  Crispus  and  Licinius  to  death  because 
they  were  possible  nuclei  of  the  conspiracy  which  he 
believed  to  pervade  the  Empire.  Adopting  a  familiar 
device,  however,  he  concealed  his  motive  under  a  charge 
of  amorous  irregularity,  or  too  great  a  familiarity  with  the 
Empress.  Helena,  who  was  greatly  attached  to  Crispus, 
seems  to  have  insisted  that,  if  there  was  any  guilt,  both 
were  guilty,  and  Constantine  savagely  completed  his 
work  by  murdering  his  wife.  The  Christian  historians 
describe  Fausta  as  opposing  Constantine's  progress  in 
his  new  faith,  and,  as  we  have  no  evidence  that  Crispus 
had  embraced  it,  one  may  not  implausibly  wonder  whether 
the  two  did  not  attract  the  favour  of  the  pagan  Romans, 
to  the  extreme  anger  of  the  Emperor.  No  charge  against 
Fausta  was  made  public.  During  the  lifetime  of  Con- 
stantine's eldest  son,  Julian  described  her,  in  one  of  his 
orations,  as  not  only  one  of  the  most  beautiful,  but  one  of 
the  most  virtuous  and  noble  ladies  of  her  time.  Even  if  we 
make  allowance  for  the  licensed  flattery  of  a  panegyrist, 
the  description  would  be  too  glaringly  inconsistent  with 
any  Imperial  theory  of  her  infidelity.  She  was  probably 
in  her  thirty-fourth  or  thirty-fifth  year  at  the  time  when 
she  met  her  appalling  death. 


THE   FIRST  CHRISTIAX   EMPRESSES  283 

Constantine  hastened  to  remove  the  gloomy,  stricken 
court  from  the  disdainful  eyes  of  Rome.  The  pagans 
pointed  with  fierce  scorn  to  these  fruits  of  the  new  re- 
ligion, as  they  expressed  it.  One  day  it  was  found  that 
some  one  had  fastened  a  Latin  couplet— written,  the  pagans 
of  a  later  day  boasted,  by  the  hand  of  the  Emperor's 
chief  counsellor,  Ablabius — on  the  gate  of  the  palace : 

Say  ye  the  Golden  Age  of  Saturn  breaks  again? 
Of  Nero's  bloody  hue  these  jewels  are. 

Either  at  once,  or  in  the  course  of  the  next  year,  the 
court  broke  up.  Constantine  went  to  direct  the  building 
of  the  new  capital  of  the  West,  which  was  to  bear  his 
name.  Later  pagans  said  that  he  fled  from  the  theatre 
of  his  crimes  and  the  scorn  of  Rome,  but  the  ample  lines 
of  Constantinople  had  been  traced  long  before,  and  the 
site  had  been  chosen  for  its  strategical  importance.  Helena 
sought  the  land  in  which  Christ  had  lived  and  died,  and  her 
pious  munificence  won  for  her  the  halo  of  sanctity.  The 
legend  of  her  finding  the  cross  does  not  appear  until 
seventy  years  afterwards,  and  Eusebius  tells  us  that  it 
was  Constantine,  not  she,  who  found  the  sepulchre  and 
built  a  church  over  it.  But  Helena,  who  had  now  great 
wealth,  covered  the  land  with  churches,  and  returned 
with  a  great  repute  for  piety.  She  died  soon  after  her 
return  —  in  328,  Tillemont  thinks  —  having  passed  her 
eightieth  year. 

Europia  also  went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Palestine,  and 
seems  to  have  settled  in  the  East.  We  find  her  a  few 
years  later  urging  Constantine  to  scatter  the  pagans  who 
are  defiling  some  sacred  spot  with  their  impure  cere- 
monies. Theodora  seems  to  have  died,  at  some  unknown 
date,  before  the  year  of  the  murders.  Constantia  died 
in,  or  about,  the  year  329.  Her  Arian  friend  Eusebius 
had  been  banished,  at  the  triumph  of  the  Athanasians, 
but  she  obtained  h's  recall,  and  adhered  to  his  Unitarian 
creed.     In  her  last  hours  she  succeeded  in  recommending 


284  THE   EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 

an  Arian  priest  to  Constantine,  and  prolonged  the  religi- 
ous struggle.  We  pass  to  a  new  generation  of  Empresses, 
and  may  dismiss  briefly  the  ten  years  which  remain  of 
Constantine's  rule  and  introduce  us  to  the  events  of  the 
next  chapter. 

In  the  month  of  May  of  the  year  330,  the  new  city 
of  Constantinople  was  solemnly  dedicated.  The  curious 
reader  will  find  in  Gibbon  a  splendid  restoration  of  its 
princely  proportions,  its  stores  of  art  gathered  from  all 
parts  of  the  Empire,  its  superb  palace,  its  great  hippo- 
drome, its  churches  and  temples,  its  spacious  fora,  and 
its  lofty  column  of  porphyry,  surmounted  by  a  gigantic 
statue,  in  which  the  head  of  Constantine  replaced  that  of 
Apollo,  and  the  various  attributes  of  the  god  he  still 
admired  were  hesitatingly  redeemed  by  emblems  of  the 
jealous  God  of  his  new  faith.  The  enormous  sums  ab- 
sorbed in  the  building  of  the  new  city  were  regarded  by 
the  pagans  as  one  of  the  causes  of  the  decay  of  the 
Empire,  and  the  bitter  strife  of  Arians  and  Athanasians, 
which  distracted  it,  irritated  their  resentment.  But  their 
day  was  closing.  The  arguments  with  which  they  clung 
to  a  Jupiter  and  a  Venus  in  whom  they  no  longer  be- 
lieved were  hollow;  the  rewards  of  conversion  were 
great.  The  grey  gods  saw  their  crowds  of  worshippers 
becoming  thinner  and  less  joyous.  The  Empire  lifted  the 
humble  cross  into  the  sunlight  from  Persia  to  Britain. 

The  last  decade  of  Constantine's  life  was  inglorious. 
We  might  distrust  the  partial  and  severe  accusations  of 
Zosimus,  but  the  substance  of  his  charge  is  found  in  the 
other  authorities.  His  vast  and  hurried  enterprise  in 
building  forced  him  to  lay  heavy  burdens  on  his  enfeebled 
Empire,  and  we  have  the  authority  of  Ammianus  Mar- 
cellinus  that  he  "encouraged  those  about  him  to  open 
devouring  jaws"  in  a  lamentable  degree.  Conversion 
was  the  first  right  to  favour  and  wealth.  The  later 
Emperor  Julian,  we  are  not  surprised  to  find,  pours 
acrid  satire  on  him.  In  the  treatise  ("Caesares")  in  which 
he  introduces  the   Emperors  of   Rome    to    the   Olympic 


THE  FIRST  CHRISTIAN  EMPRESSES  285 

court,  he  makes  Constantine  turn  to  the  goddess  Luxury, 
as  the  one  congenial  deity,  and  she  introduces  him  only 
to  her  sister  Prodigality.  He  ridicules  Constantine's 
womanly  finery  in  dress  and  jewels,  his  elaborate  crown 
of  false  hair,  his  complete  lapse  into  effeminate  ways. 
Aurelius  Victor  gives  us  the  proverbial  judgment  of  the 
next  generation  on  Constantine :  in  his  first  decade  he 
was  admirable,  in  his  second  decade  thievish,  in  his  third 
decade  a  squanderer.  He  made  the  final  blunder  of — 
without  naming  a  successor — dividing  the  Empire  among 
his  sons  and  nephews,  of  gravely  unequal  character,  and 
died  in  337,  leaving  them  and  their  supporters  to  engage 
in  a  murderous  struggle  for  supremacy. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  WIVES  OF  CONSTANTIUS  AND  JULIAN 

WHEN  the  announcement  of  Constantine's  death  had 
been  borne  by  swift  couriers  to  the  distant  pro- 
vinces, and  the  body,  in  its  golden  coffin,  had 
been  transferred  to  Constantinople,  there  was  a  nervous 
rush  of  aspiring  Emperors  and  Empresses  to  the  capital. 
The  unification  of  the  Empire  under  Constantine  had  cost 
the  State  some  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of  its  finest 
soldiers,  who  perished  in  civil  warfare  while  powerful 
nations  pressed  against  its  yielding  frontiers.  In  his  later 
years  he  had  so  distributed  these  provinces,  whose  unity 
had  been  so  dearly  purchased,  among  his  sons  and  nephews, 
worthy  and  unworthy,  that  dismemberment  was  certain  to 
follow  his  death.  His  eldest  son,  Constantine,  now  in  his 
twenty-first  year,  ruled  Gaul  and  Britain ;  Constantius, 
the  second  son,  a  youth  of  twenty,  was  the  Caesar  of  the 
East ;  the  third  son,  Constans,  aged  seventeen,  held  sway 
over  Italy  and  Africa.  His  nephew  Delmatius,  also  entitled 
Caesar,  controlled  Thrace,  Macedonia,  and  Greece,  and  the 
younger  nephew  Hannibalian  bore  the  ornate  title  of  King 
of  Kings  in  Pontus  and  Cappadocia.  The  two  brothers  of 
Constantine,  and  the  husbands  of  his  two  sisters,  were  not 
left  without  a  share  of  the  Imperial  provision. 

The  race  to  Constantinople  after  the  death  of  the 
Emperor  may  be  imagined,  but  the  suddenness  and  horror 
of  the  consequent  tragedy  must  have  sobered  even  the  most 
frivolous.  Constantius,  the  second  son,  was  the  first  to 
arrive,  and  to  him  the  conduct  of  the  impressive  funeral 
was  entrusted.    The  members  of  the  family  gathered  round 

a86 


THE  WIVES  OF  CONSTANTIUS  AND  JULIAN    287 

the  marble  palace  from  all  quarters  of  the  Empire,  and  the 
shade  of  Constantine  continued  for  some  months  to  rule 
the  State,  until  their  conflicting  claims  should  be  adjusted. 
Julius  Constantius  and  Delmatius,  the  legitimate  heirs  of 
Constantius  Chlorus,  who  had  been  thrust  aside  thirty 
years  before  by  the  vigorous  son  of  Minervina,  were  now 
men  in  the  prime  of  life.  The  younger  son  of  the  latter, 
Hannibalian,  the  *•  King  of  Kings,"  strutted  in  a  scarlet  and 
gold  mantle,  and  had  married  the  fiery  and  ambitious  young 
daughter  of  the  late  Emperor,  Constantina.  Anastasia, 
Constantine's  sister,  brought  her  husband,  the  "  Patrician  " 
Optatus.  The  partition  of  power  seemed  a  formidable 
task.  But  in  the  weeks  that  succeeded  Constantine's  death 
a  new  and  sinister  power  arose,  and  its  secret  designs  pre- 
pared a  ghastly  simplification  of  the  problem. 

Constantius  became  insensibly  the  central  figure  of  the 
drama.  A  callous  youth,  with  little  strength  of  character, 
he  was  selected  by  the  eunuchs  and  corrupt  officers  of 
Constantine's  court  as  a  likely  instrument  of  their  plans. 
It  was  agreed  that  the  interests  of  these  officers  and  of  the 
sons  of  Constantine  would  be  best  served  by  a  removal  of 
all  the  other  competitors,  and  a  diabolical  plot  was  devised. 
The  details  are  given  at  length  only  by  the  Christian 
historian  Philostorgius,  of  the  next  century,  and  are  re- 
garded with  reserve ;  but  an  Arian  writer  would  hardly 
inculpate  an  Arian  bishop  and  an  Arian  monarch  without 
some  just  ground.  His  story  is  that  Constantine  left  a 
will  in  which  he  declared  that  he  had  been  poisoned  by  his 
two  half-brothers.  The  will  was  given  to  Bishop  Eusebius. 
When  the  brothers  were  eager  to  see  the  will  of  Constantine, 
Eusebius  is  said  to  have  discovered  a  fine  piece  of  casuistry. 
He  put  the  will  in  the  hands  of  the  dead  Emperor,  and 
covered  it  with  his  robes,  so  that  he  might,  without  injury 
to  his  delicate  conscience,  assure  the  brothers  that  Con- 
stantine had  indeed  shown  him  a  will,  but  he  had  returned 
it  into  his  hands.  The  will — or  a  will — was  now  produced, 
and  the  people  and  army  were  assured  by  their  dead  ruler 
that  he  had  been  poisoned  by  his  family. 


288  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

The  story  is  regarded  with  suspicion  by  most  historians. 
For  the  reason  I  have  given,  and  because  it  is  the  only 
plausible  explanation  of  what  followed,  it  seems  probable 
that  such  a  will  was  produced  and  published  by  Constantius. 
It  was  probably  forged  by  the  palace  officials.  Whether 
they  and  the  sons  of  Constantine  used  this  device  or  no, 
they  somehow  directed  the  tempestuous  anger  of  the  troops 
upon  the  older  princes  and  their  families,  and  extinguished 
their  claims  in  a  brutal  massacre.  Julian  casts  the  blame  on 
Constantius,  admitting  that  he  acted  under  compulsion,  and 
the  other  fourth-century  writers  do  not  differ.  Constantius 
"  permitted,"  rather  than  "  commanded."  The  corrupt 
power  behind  the  throne  directed  the  murders,  and  the  sons 
of  Constantine  purchased  a  larger  dominion  by  the  blood  of 
their  uncles  and  cousins.  The  two  uncles,  seven  cousins, 
and  other  distinguished  men,  were  included  in  the  bloody 
list.  Then  the  three  Imperial  youths  divided  the  Empire 
between  them,  and  departed  to  their  provinces. 

The  wives  of  the  eldest  and  the  youngest  of  the  brothers 
are  unknown  to  us,  and  the  first  wife  of  Constantius  is  so 
little  known  that  we  may  pass  rapidly  over  a  number  o 
years.  The  Imperial  sisters  of  Constantine — except  Con- 
stantia,  whom  we  have  considered— enter  little  in  the 
history  of  the  time.  Anastasia  disappears  after  the  murder 
of  her  husband.  Eutropia  will  presently  mingle  her  blood 
with  that  of  her  insurgent  son  on  the  soil  of  Italy.  Con- 
stantina,  the  daughter  of  Constantine  who  had  married 
Hannibalian,  and  who  already  bore  the  title  of  Augusta, 
retired  into  a  long  widowhood,  from  which  we  shall  find 
her  emerging  later  in  a  monstrous  character. 

Constantius  had  been  married  to  his  cousin  Galla  in 
336.  She  seems  to  have  been  the  daughter  of  Julius 
Constantius,  since  Julian  says  that  her  father  and  brother 
were  included  in  the  massacre.  Her  personality  is  never 
outlined  for  us  in  the  historical  writings  of  the  time,  and 
we  are  left  to  imagine  her  shuddering  or  languishing  in 
the  arms  that  were  stained  with  the  blood  of  her  family. 
She  died  some  time  before  350,  as  Magnentius  off'ered  his 


THE  WIVES  OF  CONSTANTIUS  AND  JULIAN    289 

daughter  to  Constantius  in  that  year.  We  have,  therefore, 
no  Empress  who  can  engage  our  attention  until  353,  and 
may  be  content  with  a  sHght  summary  of  the  events  which 
lead  on  to  the  appearance  of  Eusebia  and  the  reappearance 
of  the  repulsive  Constantina, 

Three  years  after  the  partition  of  the  Empire  Con- 
stantine  and  Constans  quarrelled  about  their  territory. 
The  elder  brother  led  his  troops  into  the  dominion  of 
Constans,  and  was  slain  ;  and  his  provinces  were  added 
to  those  of  Constans.  The  character  of  the  youngest  son 
of  Constantine  was  gross  and  intolerable.  He  revived 
the  lowest  vice  of  his  pagan  predecessors,  and  his  open 
parade  of  the  handsome  barbarian  youths  whom  he  bought, 
or  attracted  to  his  frivolous  court,  disgusted  his  officers, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  year  350  they  rebelled  against 
him.  A  banquet  was  given  at  Augustodunum  (Autun)  to 
the  notables  of  the  town  and  the  officers  of  the  camp, 
and  at  a  late  hour,  when  the  abundant  wine  had  warmed 
the  hearts  and  obscured  the  judgment  of  the  diners,  the 
commander  of  two  of  the  chief  legions,  Magnentius,  was 
brought  before  them  in  a  purple  robe.  Constans  awoke 
from  his  vices  to  find  that  he  had  lost  the  throne  and  the 
army,  and  fled  toward  Spain.  He  was  overtaken  and 
slain.  Some  blood-curse  seemed  to  hang  over  the  house 
of  Constantine.  Constantius,  who  had  been  long  occupied 
in  resisting  the  Persians,  now  wheeled  round  his  troops, 
and  faced  the  usurper. 

in  the  long  struggle  that  followed  there  were  two 
incidents  of  interest  for  us.  Constantina,  the  Imperial 
widow,  was  living  in  restless  impotence  at  the  time. 
Between  the  rebellious  provinces  of  the  West  and  the  loyal 
provinces  of  the  East  was  the  intermediate  district  between 
the  Danube  and  the  Greek  sea.  Constantina,  it  is  said, 
instigated  the  commander  of  the  troops  in  these  regions, 
Vetranio,  to  assume  the  purple.  What  we  shall  see  of  her 
character  presently  will  dispose  us  to  believe  that  she 
meditated  a  return  to  power  through  Vetranio,  but  Con- 
stantius astutely  disarmed  and  exiled  him,  and  accepted 
19 


290  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

her  explanation  that  she  had  acted  with  the  pure  aim  of 
resisting  the  advance  of  the  Western  usurper.  Constan- 
tine's  sister  Eutropia  also  appears  in  the  struggle.  Her 
son  Nepotian  assumed  the  purple  at  Rome,  and  led  out 
a  motley  army  to  attack  Magnentius.  They  were  quickly 
annihilated,  and  mother  and  son — two  of  the  few  remaining 
members  of  Constantine's  family — were  slain. 

The  interest  of  the  student  of  the  time  is  divided 
between  the  clash  of  armies  and  the  not  wholly  bloodless 
conflicts  of  theologies.  We  are  concerned  with  neither, 
and  need  only  observe  that  Constantius  defeated  Mag- 
nentius, after  a  long  and  costly  struggle — in  one  battle 
54,000  Roman  soldiers  perished  in  civil  warfare — and  re- 
united the  Empire  under  his  sole  dominion.  The  young 
Empress  of  the  defeated  Magnentius  retired  into  widow- 
hood, and  will  be  restored  to  us  in  the  next  chapter.  In 
the  meantime  Constantina  has  returned  to  the  field,  and 
her  Imperial  adventures  call  for  our  notice. 

Two  children,  the  sons  of  Julius  Constantius,  had  sur- 
vived the  massacre  at  Constantinople.  Gallus  was  in  his 
twelfth  year,  Julian  in  his  sixth.  They  were  hidden  until 
the  fury  of  the  soldiers  had  abated,  and  then  their  tender 
age  induced  the  murderers  to  overlook  them.  The  jealous 
eye  of  Constantius  fell  on  them  when  they  approached 
manhood,  and  they  were  confined  in  a  fortress,  or  ancient 
palace,  in  Cappadocia.  In  the  solitude  of  Macellum  no 
company  was  offered  them  but  that  of  slaves  and  soldiers. 
Julian,  in  whose  mind  the  seeds  of  an  elevated  philosophy 
had  taken  root,  resisted  the  pressing  temptations,  and 
devoted  the  long  days  to  culture ;  but  Gallus,  a  sensual 
and  ill-balanced  youth,  adopted  the  coarse  distractions 
of  his  spacious  jail.  After  six  years  (in  351)  they  were 
not  only  set  at  liberty,  but  Gallus  was  amazed  to  find 
himself  clothed  with  the  dignity  of  Caesar  and  married 
to  the  Emperor's  sister  Constantina.  Constantius  was 
compelled  to  leave  the  East  in  order  to  face  Magnentius, 
and  he  needed  a  Caesar  to  rule  in  his  name. 

The  three  years'  rule  of  Gallus  and  Constantina  was 


THE  WIVES  OF  CONSTANTIUS  AND  JULIAN     291 

an  Imperial  scandal.  Unscrupulous  and  unbridled,  the 
daughter  of  Constantine  lives  in  the  literature  of  the  time 
as  a  monstrous  perversion  of  womanhood.  With  her 
begins  the  historical  work  (as  we  have  it)  of  Ammianus 
Marcellinus,  a  retired  general,  one  of  the  most  scrupulous 
and  ample  chroniclers  of  his  time.  He  bursts  at  once  into 
a  vivid  denunciation  of  her  vices.  She  was  "a  mortal 
Megaera,"  an  ogre,  swollen  with  pride  and  thirsting  for 
human  blood.  It  is  unfortunate  that  Ammianus  gives  us 
no  personal  description  of  the  women  of  his  time.  His 
work  contains  charming  vignettes  of  the  Emperors  and 
princes,  but  he  seems  never  to  have  looked  on  the  face 
or  figure  of  their  wives.  Gallus,  he  tells  us,  was  a  superb 
youth  in  figure  and  stature,  his  handsome  features  crowned 
with  soft  golden  hair,  and  bearing  a  look  of  dignity  and 
authority,  in  spite  of  his  vices.  The  strain  of  cruelty  and 
coarseness  in  him  was  provoked  to  excesses  by  his  wife. 
When  his  savage  conduct  had  exasperated  his  subjects 
he  used  to  send  his  spies,  in  the  disguise  of  beggars,  to 
gather  the  secret  whispers  of  discontent ;  and  he  even 
stooped  to  the  practice  of  wandering  himself,  in  disguise, 
from  tavern  to  tavern  on  the  well-lit  streets  of  Antioch 
to  discover  his  critics.  Antioch  had  been  noted  for  cen- 
turies for  its  freedom  of  speech,  and  the  prisons  and 
torture-chambers  of  Gallus  were  busy. 

Constantina  not  only  encouraged  this  criminal  conduct, 
but  enlarged  on  it.  A  woman  of  vicious  character  came 
one  day  to  disclose  some  plot,  or  pretended  plot,  to  her. 
She  rewarded  her  heavily,  and  sent  the  harlot  out  into  the 
city  in  the  royal  chariot,  to  encourage  others.  An  Alexan- 
drian noble  distinguished  himself  by  resisting  the  guilty 
passion  of  his  mother-in-law.  The  woman  presented 
Constantina  with  a  pearl  necklace,  and  the  noble  was  put 
to  death.  We  need  not  prolong  the  disgusting  narrative. 
Flavia  Julia  Constantina,  a  beautiful  and  able  woman, 
who  can  scarcely  have  passed  her  thirtieth  year,  was  one 
of  the  worst  Empresses  in  the  Imperial  gallery.  One  can 
but   suggest,  in   some   attenuation   of   her  guilt,  that   the 


292  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

murder  of  her  husband  by  her  brother  when  she  was  a 
young  girl  in  her  early  teens,  and  the  fourteen  years  of 
young  widowhood  that  followed,  had  provoked  the  worst 
elements  of  her  nature. 

As  long  as  Constantius  was  occupied  with  the  struggle 
against  Magnentius,he  overlooked  the  excesses  of  his  Caesar 
and  his  sister  in  the  East.  His  opponent,  Magnentius,  was 
not  so  compliant,  though  he  wasted  no  legions  in  an  effort 
to  dethrone  him.  He  sent  a  soldier  to  assassinate  Gallus 
and  seduce  the  troops.  As  the  man  resided,  however,  in  a 
tavern  near  Antioch,  he  became  less  cautious  over  his  cups, 
and  boasted  to  his  associates  of  his  mission.  The  old 
woman  who  kept  the  tavern  seemed  too  far  removed  from 
politics  to  be  taken  into  account,  but  she  promptly  de- 
nounced her  guest  at  the  palace,  and  he  was  put  to  death. 
Then  Magnentius  fell,  and  committed  suicide,  and  Con- 
stantius turned  to  consider  the  scandalous  conduct  of  his 
viceroy  and  his  sister. 

Constantius  proceeded,  as  he  usually  did  whenever  it 
was  possible,  by  craft  instead  of  force.  The  Prefect  of  the 
East  had  been  slain  by  the  people  of  Antioch,  with  the 
guilty  connivance  of  Gallus,  and  a  new  Prefect,  named 
Domitian,  was  sent  to  Antioch,  together  with  the  Prefect 
of  the  Palace,  Montius.  Domitian  had  orders  to  secure, 
by  the  most  tactful  and  seductive  means,  that  Gallus  should 
visit  Italy,  and  walk  into  the  pit  dug  for  him.  He  was, 
however,  a  sturdy  officer,  more  sensible  of  the  just  sub- 
stance than  the  form  of  his  instructions.  Gallus  and 
Constantina  were  at  once  insulted  because,  on  the  day  of 
his  arrival,  he  drove  insolently  past  the  gate  of  the  palace, 
and  went  straight  to  his  villa.  They  then  condescended  to 
invite  him  to  the  palace.  In  the  presence  of  the  hated 
rulers  he  laid  aside  all  pretence  of  diplomacy,  and  roughly 
ordered  the  Caesar  to  proceed  at  once  to  Italy,  or  incur 
the  just  resentment  of  the  Emperor.  Gallus,  stung  by  his 
insolence,  at  once  gave  the  Prefect  into  the  custody  of  the 
soldiers.  Montius,  who  was  present,  and  who  also  had 
lost  all  feeling  for  diplomacy  in  the  passionate  encounter, 


THE  WIVES  OF  CONSTANTIUS  AND  JULIAN     293 

remonstrated  with  Gallus,  adding  the  taunt  that  a  man  who 
had  no  power  to  dismiss  one  of  his  magistrates  had  no 
right  to  imprison  a  Prefect  of  the  East.  We  are  assured 
by  Philostorgius  that  Constantina  flew  at  the  official, 
dragged  him  from  the  tribunal,  and  pushed  him  into  the 
hands  of  the  guard.  We  may  prefer  the  more  sober  version 
of  Ammianus.  Gallus  impetuously  called  upon  the  troops 
and  the  people  of  Antioch  to  defend  their  ruler,  and  they 
responded  with  surprising  alacrity.  The  distinguished 
officers  of  Constantius  were  bound  hand  and  foot,  dragged 
through  the  streets  until  the  last  spark  of  life  was  extinct, 
and  then  flung  into  the  river. 

Still  Constantius  hesitated  to  enter  upon  a  civil  war 
with  the  East,  and  the  unscrupulous  cunning  which  dictated 
his  policy  discovered  an  alternative  procedure.  First,  the 
commander  of  the  cavalry  in  the  East  was  summoned  to 
Milan,  that  the  danger  of  a  rising  might  be  lessened. 
Then,  a  series  of  letters,  couched  in  the  most  friendly  and 
mendacious  terms,  were  sent  to  the  Caesar.  Constantius 
was  eager  to  see  his  beloved  sister  once  more,  and  to  confer 
with  his  Caesar.  For  some  time  they  resisted  the  invitation, 
but  at  length  Constantina,  less  apprehensive  of  personal 
injury,  set  out  for  Italy.  She  died  on  the  journey,  at 
Coenum  in  Bithynia,  of  fever,  and  her  remains  were  buried 
at  Rome.  She  was  still  in  her  early  thirties  at  the  time  of 
her  death.  The  single  deed  that  is  recorded  in  praise  of 
her  is  that  she  and  Gallus  planted  a  Christian  church  in  the 
dissolute  grove  of  Daphne,  and  drew  the  austerity  of  the 
new  faith  upon  that  region  of  sensuous  superstition  and 
sensual  license.  Her  share  in  that  act  of  piety  may  be 
put  in  the  scale  against  her  avarice,  cruelty,  selfishness,  and 
unbridled  temper. 

The  fate  of  her  husband  may  be  briefly  recorded.  Lured 
at  length  by  the  deceitful  professions  of  Constantius,  he 
set  out  for  Milan  with  his  princely  retinue.  As  soon  as 
he  reached  Europe,  the  retinue  was  brushed  aside,  and  he 
discovered  himself  a  captive.  When  the  little  party  arrived 
in  Pannonia,  he  was  stripped  of  the  purple,  and  conducted 


294  THE   EMPRESSES   OF   ROME 

to  the  remote  prison  at  Pola,  where  Crispus  had  been 
executed.  There  he  was  "  tried  "  by  a  eunuch  of  Constan- 
tius's  court,  and  within  a  few  days  a  breathless  courtier — 
he  had  ridden  several  horses  to  death— rushed  into  the 
presence  of  Constantius  with  the  shoes  of  the  slain  Caesar. 
The  Empire  was  reunited  under  Constantius,  at  a  cost  of 
the  deaths  of  twenty  princes  and  princesses  of  his  house 
and  their  dependents,  and  fifty  thousand  soldiers  ;  and  the 
eunuchs  and  courtiers  filled  the  palace  at  Milan  with  the 
incense  they  offered  to  the  young  conqueror. 

Constantius  had,  meantime,  married  again,  and  a  more 
worthy  and  commanding  Empress  engages  our  attention. 
Toward  the  close  of  his  struggle  with  Magnentius,  in  the 
year  352  or  the  beginning  of  353,  the  Emperor  married  a 
Macedonian  lady,  Aurelia  Eusebia,  of  remarkable  beauty, 
no  little  ability,  and  dignified  personality.  Her  father  and 
brothers  had  had  consular  rank  in  their  province ;  her 
mother  had  been  distinguished  for  the  propriety  of  her 
conduct  and  the  careful  rearing  of  her  children  after  the 
death  of  her  husband.  The  language  in  which  the  Emperor 
Julian  describes  her  is  enhanced  by  gratitude,  and  enjoys 
the  license  of  a  panegyric ;  some  would  say  that  it  is 
warmed  by  a  more  tender  sentiment.  But  Ammianus,  who 
also  knew  her,  pronounces  that  the  beauty  of  her  character 
was  not  less  splendid  than  that  of  her  form,  and,  beyond  a 
peevish  complaint  of  a  later  writer  that  she  did  not  confine 
herself  to  the  proper  and  restricted  sphere  of  a  woman,  she 
maintains  her  high  repute  among  the  conflicting  writers  of 
the  time.  The  one  grave  imputation,  which  Ammianus 
seems  to  find  quite  consistent  with  his  superlative  praise 
of  her,  we  will  consider  later. 

We  find  Eusebia  established  in  the  court  at  Milan  at 
the  time  when  the  heads  of  the  last  of  Constantius's 
rivals  are  falling.  When  Callus  has  disappeared,  he 
proudly  takes  the  title  of  "  Lord  of  the  World,"  and 
endeavours  to  live  up  to  it,  amid  his  company  of  eunuchs 
and  fawning  attendants.  In  the  hands  of  those  astute  and 
concordant    schemers  the  weak  and  vain    monarch    w^s 


THE  WIVES  OF  CONSTANTIUS  AND  JULIAN    295 

easily  persuaded  to  arrive  at  decisions  which  he  attributed 
to  his  own  judgment,  and  it  is,  perhaps,  the  most  indulgent 
plea  that  we  can  make  for  him  that  he  was  governed  by 
a  power  so  subtle  and  insinuating  that  he  never  perceived 
it.  The  high  merit  of  a  scrupulous  chastity  is  claimed  for 
him ;  but  the  monastic  writer  Zonaras  somewhat  detracts 
from  this  by  affirming  that  his  coldness  deprived  him  of 
a  dynasty  and  forced  his  beautiful  and  accomplished  wife 
into  a  fatal  decline.  His  piety,  at  least,  might  be  praised ; 
but  it  rested  on  a  basis  of  Arian  creed  and  is  exposed 
to  the  scorn  of  the  orthodox,  who  called  him  Antichrist. 

We  may  concur  in  the  strictures  of  Zonaras  so  far  as 
to  admit  that  Eusebia  cannot  have  been  happy  in  his 
court.  The  eunuch  Eusebius,  who  had  tried  and  exe- 
cuted Gallus,  was  the  most  powerful  man  in  the  Empire. 
Ammianus  observes,  with  heavy  irony,  that  Constantius 
was  believed  to  be  not  without  influence  with  his  emascu- 
lated chamberlain.  A  hierarchy  of  lesser,  but  hardly  less 
corrupt,  officials  led  up  to  this  favoured  minister,  and 
Ammianus,  from  personal  acquaintance  with  the  court, 
assures  us  that  their  rapacity  and  unscrupulousness  grew 
with  the  power  of  Constantius.  A  Persian  officer,  Mer- 
curius,  had  the  nickname  of  "  The  Count  of  Dreams,"  from 
the  skill  with  which  he  could  make  the  most  innocent 
fancies  of  the  night  bear  a  treasonable  complexion,  and 
bring  destruction  and  spoliation  on  the  dreamer.  Paulus, 
who  had  risen  from  the  lowly  position  of  table-steward, 
was  called  "The  Chain,"  because  of  the  art  with  which 
he  could  involve  a  man  in  a  charge  of  plotting.  Torture 
and  confiscation  became  common  experiences  once  more, 
and  men  began  to  shrink  from  even  the  most  innocent 
conversation. 

This  unpleasant  tenor  of  the  Imperial  life  at  Milan 
was  relieved  by  the  great  controversy  of  the  Arians  and 
Athanasians,  which  was  brought  to  Italy  for  decision. 
How  Constantius  and  his  officers  induced  the  Latin 
bishops  to  condemn  Athanasius,  in  355,  by  "stroking  their 
bellies  instead  of  laying  the  rod  on  their  backs,"  to  use 


206  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

the  vigorous   phrase  of  St.   Hilary,  does  not  concern  us, 
but  it  is  interesting  to  see  how  Eusebia  came  in  contact 
with   the   prelates.     When   the    Roman   bishop,   Liberius, 
bravely — for  a  time — incurred  exile  rather  than  condemn 
Athanasius,    Eusebia    sent    him   a    sum    of   money.      He 
returned  it  with   the  suggestion  that  her  husband  might 
find  it  useful  for  his  troops  or  his  Arian  bishops.    A  new 
power,  besides  that  of  eunuchs,  was  rising.     Suidas  pre- 
serves a  story  that  may  be  given  here,  though  it  may  or 
may  not  refer  to  this  Council.    As  the  bishops,  he  says, 
came  to  the  town  where  the  court  was,  for  the  purpose 
of  holding  a  Council,  they  called  to  salute  the  Empress. 
Leontius,  Bishop  of  Tripoli,  refused  to  visit  her,  and  she 
sent  word  that,  if  he  would  call,  she  would  give  him  the 
funds  to  build  a  large  church.     The  saintly  prelate  replied 
that  he  would  condescend  to  visit  her  if  he  were  assured 
that   she  would   receive   him   with   fitting  respect — if,   he 
explained,  she  would  rise  from  her  throne  at  his  entrance, 
bend  for  his  benediction,  and  remain  standing,  while  he 
sat,  until  he  permitted  her  to  resume  her  seat. 

In    the    same  year  (355),   however,    a    more    pleasant 
diversion  alleviated  the  weariness  of  Eusebia,  and  another 
Empress  is  introduced  to  our  notice.     We  have  already 
said  that  the  unhappy  Gallus  had  for  companion  in  his 
Cappadocian  jail   a  young  half-brother  of   the    name    of 
Julian.     Imbibing  his  early  culture  at  the  alternate  hands 
of  Bishop   Eusebius  and  the   philosophical   eunuch   Mar- 
donius,  Julian  had  come  to  prefer  the  Greek  culture  of  the 
latter  to  the  theological  lore  of  the  prelate.     He  had  come 
out   untainted  from  the  lonely  fortress  at  Macellum,  and 
had   passed   to   Constantinople   and    then    to    Nicomedia. 
There  the  distinguished  pagan  Libanius  attracted  his  alle- 
giance, and  from  the  three  years  in  which  he  studied  at 
Nicomedia  his  mind  was  wholly  given  to  the  older  culture, 
however  much  he  might  be  compelled  to  dissemble  his 
aversion   for   the   new  religion.      After  the   execution    of 
Gallus  he  was  brought  to  Milan.     With  growing  apprehen- 
sion he  awaited  the  decision  of  "  the  eunuch,  chamberlain. 


^ 


THE  WIVES  OF  CONSTANTIUS  AND  JULIAN     297 

and  cook"  who,  he  says,  directed  the  bloody  counsels  of 
Constantius.  But  he  found  an  unexpected  and  powerful 
friend  in  the  Empress. 

It  seems  clear  that  Eusebia  first  espoused  his  cause  in 
a  pure  feeling  of  humanity.  The  officials  had  impeached 
the  innocent  youth  of  twenty-three  or  twenty-four,  chiefly 
n  the  ground  of  having  visited  Gallus,  and  his  life  was 
gravely  threatened.  Eusebia  threw  all  her  influence  in 
the  scale  against  the  malignant  officials,  and,  though  they 
prevented  Constantius  from  hearing  him,  she  saved  his 
life.  He  was  housed  in  the  suburbs  of  Milan,  and  was 
taken  one  day  to  see  Eusebia.  *'  I  seemed  to  see,  as  in  a 
temple,  the  image  of  the  goddess  of  wisdom,"  he  afterwards 
wrote  in  his  "  Letter  to  the  Athenians."  The  splendid 
figure  of  the  beautiful  Empress  can  easily  be  imagined 
to  have  made  a  remarkable  impression  on  the  bookish 
youth.  Eusebia  was  differently,  but  favourably,  impressed. 
Julian  was  a  well-made  youth,  of  moderate  stature  and 
broad  shoulders.  He  had  the  soft  curly  hair  of  his  brother, 
a  straight  nose,  large  mouth,  and  brilliant  eyes.  The 
humane  feeling  of  the  Empress  assumed  a  more  tender  and 
personal  complexion,  and  she  set  to  work  to  make  Julian's 
fortune. 

He  was  sent  for  a  time  to  Como,  and,  as  her  influence 
prevailed,  recalled  to  Milan,  and  permitted  to  reply  to  his 
accusers  before  the  Emperor.  He  was  then  permitted  to 
retire  to  his  mother's  small  estate  in  Bithynia,  but  Eusebia 
induced  Constantius  to  impose  on  him  the  pleasant  sentence 
of  an  exile  to  Athens.  From  the  beloved  schools  of  Athens 
he  was,  after  a  few  months,  recalled  to  Milan,  to  hear 
the  astounding  news  that  he  was  to  receive  the  purple  robe 
of  Caesar  and  the  hand  of  the  Emperor's  sister  Helena. 
He  shrank  in  tears  from  the  political  world  that  opened  to 
him,  but  Eusebia  tactfully  overcame  his  opposition  and 
guided  his  conduct.  Her  eunuchs  ran  continually  between 
the  palace  and  his  lodging.  The  beard  and  cloak  of  the 
philosopher  were  laid  aside,  and  Julian  blushed  to  find 
himself  accoutred   in  the  splendid  trappings  of   a  com- 


298  THE   EMPRESSES   OF   ROME 

mander.  The  jeers  and  intrigues  of  the  court  were  at 
length  silenced,  and,  on  November  6th,  355,  he  stood  on  a 
lofty  platform  before  the  troops  while  Constantius  invested 
him  with  the  purple  and  exhorted  him  to  sustain  the 
honour  of  Rome.  The  marriage  with  Helena  followed, 
and  in  December  Julian  and  his  bride,  with  a  valuable 
collection  of  books  as  the  gift  of  Eusebia,  set  out  for 
Gaul. 

Julian  never  saw  Eusebia  again,  and  cannot  have  had 
the  least  correspondence  with  her.  Even  in  Milan  he 
had,  on  reflection,  torn  up  a  letter  in  which  he  modestly 
wished  his  patroness  the  reward  of  a  succession  of  children. 
On  his  side  there  was  nothing  but  a  pure  feeling  of 
gratitude  and  reverence.  She  was,  says  Zosimus,  "  a  woman 
of  erudition  and  prudence  above  her  sex";  a  shining 
example  of  spiritual  and  bodily  beauty,  according  to 
Ammianus.  She  had  most  probably  saved  his  life,  and 
most  certainly  made  his  fortune.  But  it  is  believed  by 
many  writers  that  Eusebia's  feeling  for  Julian  was  of  a  less 
ethereal  nature.  Gaetano  Negri,  whose  life  of  Julian  is 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  biographies  of  a  Roman 
Emperor,  justly  repudiates  the  suggestion  of  improper 
feeling  on  her  part,  and  it  is  a  superfluous  inference.  But 
one  may,  without  casting  the  least  reflection  on  her  virtue, 
hesitate  to  think  that  the  only  link  between  them  was 
a  sympathy  of  culture.  Such  sympathy  we  may  well 
assume  between  a  cultivated  Greek  lady  and  an  ardent 
Hellenist,  but  so  cold  and  spiritual  a  relation  may  very 
naturally  and  pardonably  have  been  strengthened  by  a 
warmer  feeling.  Julian  had  no  sensuous  attractiveness  for 
a  beautiful  woman.  But  his  manly  person  and  character, 
his  vast  superiority  to  the  crowd  of  ignoble  parasites  she 
daily  encountered,  and  to  her  weak  and  mediocre  husband, 
must  have  excited  an  admiration  less  purely  intellectual 
than  an  appreciation  of  his  learning. 

The  person  of  Flavia  Julia  Helena  remains  faint  and 
elusive  in  the  ample  chronicle  of  the  time.  She  was  much 
older  than  Julian,  who  was  in  his  twenty-fifth  year,  while 


THE  WIVES  OF  CONSTANTIUS  AND  JULIAN     299 

Helena  cannot  have  been  less  than  thirty.'  She  had  not 
been  previously  married,  Ammianus  says,  and  the  long 
maidenhood  would  not  tend  to  make  her  attractive.  The 
marriage  was  arranged  by  Eusebia  in  the  political  interest 
of  Julian,  and  it  probably  retained  the  chill  that  a  manage 
de  convenance,  with  such  disparity  of  age,  would  naturally 
bear.  In  Julian's  abundant,  and  largely  autobiographical, 
writings  she  is  barely  mentioned.  It  was  the  marriage  of 
an  old  maid — for  the  Roman  world— with  an  austere, 
if  conscientious,  philosopher.  The  gradual  discovery  of 
Julian's  secret  loyalty  to  the  old  gods  would  not  make 
their  relations  more  cordial. 

We  may,  therefore,  regret  that  the  single  line  of  inquiry 
which  we  pursue  will  compel  us  to  leave  almost  unnoticed 
the  brilliant  episode  of  the  reign  of  Julian.  The  more 
liberal  taste  of  our  time  has  removed  the  violent  and 
conflicting  colours  which  the  partisan  writers  of  the  fourth 
century  laid  upon  the  portrait  of  Julian.  To  Gregory 
of  Nazianzum  he  was  a  faint  impersonation  of  Antichrist ; 
to  the  pagan  writers  a  modest  incorporation  of  Apollo. 
In  modern  history  he  is  a  most  conscientious  thinker, 
a  humane  and  unselfish  ruler,  a  very  capable  commander, 
a  conceited  and  unattractive  personality.  His  character, 
in  spite  of  the  shade  that  clings  to  it  as  a  trace  of  the 
enforced  dissimulation  of  his  early  years,  is  great :  his 
ability  and  achievements  are  just  entitled  to  be  called 
brilliant. 

Helena  and  Eusebia  appear  little  in  the  years  that 
follow,  and  we  must  narrate  the  necessary  events  very 
briefly.  The  frame  of  mind  in  which  Constantius  sent 
Julian  to  Gaul  as  Caesar  is  not  at  all  clear.  The  frontier 
was  obliterated ;  the  barbarians  overrunning  the  country 
in  formidable  strength ;  the  military  force  inadequate,  ex- 
cept with   fine   control.     Some    writers    are    disposed   to 

•  Miss  Gardner  observes,  in  her  life  of  Julian,  that  we  do  not  know  if 
Helena  was  older  than  Julian.  But,  while  Julian  is  known  to  have  been 
born  in  331  or  332,  since  he  was  in  his  sixth  year  at  the  time  of  the  massacre 
of  337,  and  died  jit  thirty-twp,  Helena's  piother  had  beep  murdered  in  326, 


300  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

think  that  Constantius  was  sending  his  cousin  to  death. 
At  all  events,  the  faith  of  Eusebia,  that  her  young  and 
shrinking  scholar  would  surmount  these  difficulties,  was 
great ;  and  it  was  rewarded.  Julian  at  once  discovered  a 
bravery  that  none  had  suspected.  He  cut  his  way  through 
a  region  occupied  by  the  barbarians,  surveyed  the  devastated 
frontier,  and  passed  the  first  year  of  his  inexperience  with 
only  one  small  disaster.  The  difficulty  of  his  task  seemed 
greater  when,  in  the  winter,  he  was  besieged  in  Sens,  and 
the  commander  of  the  troops  in  the  neighbourhood  refused 
to  go  to  his  relief.  In  the  trouble  that  followed  Eusebia 
obtained  for  him  the  full  command  of  the  troops,  which  had 
been  withheld  from  him,  and  from  that  moment  he  entered 
on  a  career  of  victory. 

It  is  probable  that  Helena  did  not  share  his  peril  in 
this  winter  (356-7).  We  find  her  at  Rome  in  April,  with 
Eusebia  and  Constantius,  and  a  curious  story  of  their 
relations  is  put  before  us.  Constantius  in  that  month 
bestowed  his  first  and  only  visit  upon  the  ancient  capital 
of  the  Empire.  Sitting  in  a  chariot  that  glittered  with 
gold  and  gems,  preceded  by  officers  whose  spears  bore 
silken  dragons,  so  fashioned  as  to  hiss  in  the  breeze,  on 
their  golden  and  bejewelled  tips,  followed  by  his  legions  in 
battle-array,  their  breastplates  and  shields  gleaming  in  the 
sun,  the  Emperor  passed  with  affected  indifference  between 
the  dense  lines  of  spectators  and  the  great  monuments  of 
Rome ;  though  both  the  vast  crowds  and  the  ancient  struc- 
tures, shining  with  a  beauty  that  his  decaying  Empire 
could  no  longer  produce,  wrung  from  him  in  private  an 
expression  of  astonishment.  Eusebia  had  invited  Helena 
to  join  them  in  this  visit  to  Rome. 

At  a  later  point  in  his  narrative  Ammianus  makes  a 
reference  to  this  visit  that  has  perplexed  every  thoughtful 
reader.  When  he  comes  to  record  the  death  of  Helena,  he 
says  that  it  was  due  to  a  poisonous  drug  administered  to 
her  by  Eusebia,  during  the  visit  to  Rome,  to  prevent  her 
from  having  children,  and  that  in  the  previous  year,  when 
she  was  pregnant,  Eusebia  sent  a  midwife  to  destroy  the 


THE  WIVES  OF  CONST ANTIUS  AND  JULIAN     301 

child  under  pretence  of  attending  her.  It  does  not  seem 
to  occur  to  Gibbon  and  other  historians,  who  adopt  this 
story,  that  it  suggests  in  Eusebia  a  character  in  complete 
contradiction  to  that  ascribed  to  her  by  Ammianus  himself 
and  every  other  Roman  writer.  A  jealousy  of  Helena, 
whether  on  account  of  her  own  childlessness  or  on  account 
of  Julian,  that  could  force  her  to  such  a  malignant  course, 
is  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  description  we  have  quoted 
of  her.  The  story  is  peremptorily  rejected  by  Miss  Gardner 
and  Signor  Negri,  and  its  discord  with  all  that  we  know  of 
Eusebia  is  noticed  by  most  writers. 

One  is  tempted  to  inquire  if  it  may  not  be  an  interpola- 
tion, but  the  text  of  Ammianus  lends  no  support  whatever 
to  the  idea.  We  can  only  suppose  that  Ammianus  incor- 
porated a  piece  of  idle  gossip,  and  was  inattentive  to  its 
inconsistency  with  his  high  moral  praise  of  Eusebia.  Many 
legends,  we  shall  see,  sprang  up  after  the  death  of  Helena. 
Some  of  them  assail  Julian,  and  are  easily  traced  to 
their  source.  It  is  possible  that  the  courtiers  who  op- 
posed Eusebia,  and  doubtless  misrepresented  her  zeal 
for  Julian,  started  the  rumour,  and  Ammianus  heard  it  in 
Italy  years  afterwards.  It  is  a  mere  feather  in  the  scale 
against  the  authorities  for  the  high  character  of  the 
Empress. 

From  Rome  Constantius  was  summoned  to  repel  fresh 
invasions  in  the  East,  and  Helena  returned  to  Gaul.  She 
remains  unnoticed  until  the  spring  of  the  year  360,  and  we 
will  not  follow  Julian  through  the  brilliant  campaigns  in 
which  he  reduced  the  most  powerful  tribes  of  the  bar- 
barians, and  restored  peace  and  prosperity  to  his  stricken 
province.  But  while  Julian  succeeded  in  the  West,  the 
campaign  of  the  troops  of  Constantius  in  the  East  won 
for  the  Emperor  few  laurels,  and  entailed  grave  disasters. 
The  intriguers  now  doubled  their  charges  against  Julian, 
and  plausibly  suggested  that  he  would  be  prompted  to 
claim  a  higher  title  than  that  of  Caesar.  It  was  decided 
to  reduce  his  power  by  removing  a  number  of  his  finest 
legions  to  the  East. 


302  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Julian  was  in  winter  quarters  at  Paris — as  Lutetia  was 
beginning  to  be  called — when  the  grave  summons  reached 
him.  The  island  on  the  Seine,  which  now  bears  the 
Cathedral,  had  from  early  times  offered  a  secure  settlement, 
and,  as  the  province  became  more  settled,  the  adjoining 
slope,  where  the  Latin  Quarter  of  a  later  age  began,  was 
occupied  with  a  palace,  an  amphitheatre,  and  a  few  of  the 
customary  institutions  of  a  Roman  town.  Julian  loved  the 
little  settlement  on  the  broad  silvery  river,  surrounded  by 
dense  forests,  and  he  was  spending  the  winter  there,  attend- 
ing with  equal  judgment  and  humanity  to  the  civil  welfare 
of  his  province,  when  the  officers  of  Constantius  arrived. 
He  has  described  at  length  the  painful  perplexity  into  which 
he  was  thrown.  Not  only  would  the  sacrifice  of  four  of 
his  best  legions  seriously  impair  his  strength,  but  they  were 
local  troops  and  had  enlisted  only  for  local  service.  He 
decided  to  obey,  and  ordered  the  troops  to  prepare  for 
departure.  An  angry  murmur  arose  from  the  camps,  as 
the  men  reflected  on  the  fate  that  might  befall  their  families 
in  the  ill-protected  country.  Julian  provided  that  their 
wives  and  children  should  accompany  them,  and  they 
gathered  at  Paris  for  the  dismissal.  In  affecting  language 
the  Caesar  conveyed  to  them  his  thanks  and  his  admoni- 
tions, entertained  their  officers  at  a  banquet,  and  retired 
to  his  palace. 

The  sincerity  of  Julian  has  been  made  the  theme  of 
an  acrid  discussion  between  his  violent  critics  and  his 
resolute  admirers.  But  we  may,  without  serious  reflection 
on  his  character,  doubt  whether  he  entirely  wished  the 
troops  to  go.  Such  an  order,  from  such  a  source,  would 
plausibly  relieve  a  Caesar  from  obedience.  Only  excessive 
virtue  or  uncertain  prospect  of  the  issue  would  counsel 
a  man  to  obey  it.  Both  feelings  were  at  work  in  Julian's 
mind,  and  there  is  not  ground  to  accuse  his  later  account 
of  hypocrisy.  But  we  may  surmise  that,  at  the  time,  his 
decision  was  accompanied  by  unsanctioned  hopes  and 
dreams  of  a  more  satisfactory  issue.  In  those  days  of 
anxious  dehberation  his  imagination,  however  he  might 


THE  WIVES  OF  CONSTANTIUS  AND  JULIAN     303 

curb  it,  must  have  depicted  for  him  the  revival  of  cul- 
ture, the  arrest  of  superstition,  the  purification  of  the 
court  and  Empire,  that  would  follow  his  elevation  to  the 
throne. 

He  retired  to  his  palace,  where,  as  he  incidentally 
observes  somewhere,  Helena  lived  with  him.  But  shortly 
after  midnight  a  great  tumult  arose  from  the  direction 
of  the  camp,  and  from  the  windows  one  could  see  the 
troops,  the  light  of  their  torches  gleaming  on  their  drawn 
swords,  coming  toward  the  palace.  The  doors  were  at 
once  closed,  and  Julian  refused  to  show  himself,  but  the 
cry  of  "Imperator"  easily  penetrated  to  his  ears.  On 
the  following  morning  they  broke  into  the  palace,  and 
forcibly  conducted  Julian  to  the  camp.  He  resisted, 
threatened,  and  supplicated,  but  the  troops  were  con- 
sulting their  own  interest,  now  gravely  threatened  by 
their  revolt,  and  there  was  no  other  course  possible  but 
to  consent.  He  was  raised  up  on  a  shield,  and  the  legions 
broke  into  a  frenzy  of  delight  at  their  escape  from  exile. 
A  diadem  only  was  needed  to  complete  his  new  dignity, 
and  Helena,  who  was  present,  seems  to  have  offered  a 
pearl  necklace  of  hers.  Julian  refused  to  wear  the  feminine 
adornment,  and  an  officer  provided  a  rich  golden  collar, 
studded  with  gems,  for  the  coronation. 

With  the  struggle  that  followed,  and  the  dramatic 
chapter  that  opened  in  the  annals  of  Rome,  we  have  no 
concern.  Both  our  Empresses  die  before  a  decisive  stage 
is  reached.  The  date  of  the  death  of  Eusebia  is  not 
known.  It  was  some  time  between  the  beginning  of  359 
and  the  middle  of  360,  as  Constantius  married  again 
toward  the  end  of  360.  She  is  said  to  have  died  of  an 
inflammation  of  the  womb,  brought  on  by  taking  drugs 
for  procuring  fertility.  That  such  drugs  were  familiar  at 
the  time,  and  that  the  Empress  would  naturally  try  their 
effect,  we  readily  admit,  but  we  need  not  entirely  over- 
look the  statement  of  Zonaras  that  the  conduct  of  her 
husband  and  the  unhappiness  of  her  circumstances  brought 
the  beautiful  Greek  into  a  decline.     Had  she  shared  the 


304  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

throne  with  Julian,  and  adopted  his  views,  the  story  of 
Europe   might   have   run   differently.* 

That  Helena  was  won  to  the  views  of  Julian  is 
improbable.  She  would,  no  doubt,  discover  soon  after 
her  marriage  that  he  secretly  cherished  the  cult  of  the 
old  gods.  From  his  first  month  in  Gaul  he  had,  with 
one  assistant,  set  up  a  private  shrine  to  them.  There 
are  coins  that  bear  the  names  of  Julian  and  Helena  and 
the  figures  of  Isis  and  Serapis,  but  they  yield  no  inference. 
Nor  can  we  learn  the  attitude  of  Helena  in  the  struggle 
between  her  husband  and  her  brother.  The  complete 
silence  of  Julian  suggests  that  she  remained  moodily 
silent  or  hostile.  Several  months  were  spent  in  negotia- 
tion with  Constantius.  In  December  Julian  celebrated, 
at  Vienne,  the  fifth  anniversary  of  his  promotion,  and  wore 
the  splendid  diadem  of  an  Emperor  as  he  presided  at  the 
games  and  exercises.  In  the  midst  of  the  festivities  Helena 
died.  Zonaras,  who  also  gives  a  ridiculous  rumour  that 
she  had  been  divorced  by  Julian,  says  that  she  died  in 
childbirth.  We  are  tempted  to  think  that  the  painful 
development  of  her  unprosperous  marriage  weighed 
heavily  on  her,  and  her  pregnancy  had  a  premature  and 
fatal  delivery.  Her  remains  were  conveyed  to  Rome,  and 
laid  by  those  of  her  sister  Constantina.  We  need  not 
notice  the  charge  of  one  of  Constantius's  officers  that 
Julian  had  poisoned  her,  and  paid  the  guilty  physician 
with  his  mother's  jewels.  Julian,  honestly,  professes  no 
grief  at  her  death,  and  he  never  married  again. 

A  third  Empress  makes  a  brief  appearance  at  the 
time  when  Helena  passes  away.  Passing  from  his  long 
campaign  on  the  Danube  to  the  stricken  regions  of  the 
East,  Constantius  had,  toward  the  close  of  360,  married  for 
the  third  time,  at  Antioch.  Maxima  Faustina,  his  third 
Empress,  had  little  time  to  make  an  impression  on  history, 
if  she  were  capable  of  it.     As  Constantius  at  length  set 

'  Philostorgius  says  that,  as  she  lay  ill  with  her  malady,  Constantius 
recalled  Bishop  Theophilus  from  exile,  and  he  cured  her.  But  Zonaras 
makes  her  die  of  this  very  malady,  scouting  the  Arian  miracle. 


THE  WIVES  OF  CONSTANTIUS  AND  JULIAN     305 

out  from  Antioch,  in  the  autumn  of  361,  to  crush  the 
mutiny  in  the  West,  as  he  affected  to  regard  it,  he  con- 
tracted a  fever,  and  died  before  he  reached  the  European 
frontier.  Faustina  was  left  with  the  unborn  wife  of 
the  future  Emperor  Gratian,  and  will  come  to  our  notice 
again.  The  Roman  Empire  was  once  more  united  under 
a  strong,  upright,  and  accomplished  ruler.  But  Julian 
was  now  wedded  to  his  ideals,  and,  as  no  woman  shared 
his  ascetic  life  and  arduous  labours,  we  must  pass  over 
the  reforms,  the  campaigns,  and  the  religious  struggles 
of  the  next  two  years. 


20 


CHAPTER  XIX 

JUSTINA 

THE  splendour  of  Julian's  reign  was  soon  overcast. 
In  the  summer  of  363,  as  he  was  skilfully  extricating 
his  troops  from  a  dangerous  position  in  Persia,  he 
was  pierced  with  a  javelin,  and  he  expired,  with  dignity 
and  serenity,  amongst  his  saddened  supporters.  Amid 
the  noisy  intrigue  for  the  succession  that  followed,  the 
name  of  Jovian,  a  popular  and  handsome  officer  of  no 
distinction,  obtained  the  loudest  support,  and  the  mantle 
of  the  brilliant  young  Emperor  was  conferred  on  him. 
How  he  secured  the  retreat  of  his  troops  by  humiliating 
concessions  to  the  Persians,  and  the  Roman  soldiers  and 
Roman  settlers  sadly  evacuated  the  provinces  on  which 
the  blood  of  their  fathers  had  been  freely  spent,  and  the 
emblem  of  the  cross  was  borne  again  at  the  head  of  the 
legions,  need  not  be  told  here.  Not  only  is  the  wife  of 
Jovian,  Charito,  no  more  than  a  name  to  us,  but  Jovian 
himself  died  before  he  reached  the  luxury  of  the  capital. 
His  brief  enjoyment  of  power  had  been  adorned  by  neither 
courage  nor  temperance.  Charito  sank  back  into  obscurity, 
with  her  infant  son,  and  was  years  afterwards  laid  by  the 
side  of  her  husband  in  the  Church  of  the  Apostles  at 
Byzantium. 

The  next  reign  will  introduce  us  to  the  stronger  and 
more  prominent  personality  of  the  Empress  Justina  and 
other  Empresses  of  some  interest.  The  hum  of  intrigue 
had  arisen  again  in  the  camp,  and  the  struggle  of  Christian 
and  pagan  was  resumed.     The  choice  of  the  army  at  length 

306 


JUSTINA  307 

fell  once  more  on  an  officer  whose  chief  distinction  was 
that  he  had  a  large  and  handsome  person,  and  had  had 
an  energetic  father.  Valentinian  had  been  an  officer  in 
Julian's  guards,  and  had  one  day,  as  he  attended  the 
Emperor  at  sacrifice,  cuffed  the  priest  for  dropping  some 
of  the  lustral  water  on  his  coat.  Julian  banished  him 
for  this  violent  desecration  of  his  cult,  but,  though  the 
more  lively  writers  of  the  time  promptly  dispatch  him 
to  remote  and  contradictory  regions,  even  Tillemont  doubts 
if  the  sentence  was  carried  out.  It  is  probable  that  Julian 
had  merely  dismissed  him  from  the  body-guard,  as  we 
find  him  in  the  army  at  the  time  of  Julian's  death.  With 
two  other  officers  he  was  sent  by  Jovian  to  secure  the 
allegiance  of  the  troops  in  the  West.  One  legion,  devoted 
to  the  memory  of  Julian,  rebelled,  and  Valentinian  had 
to  fly  for  his  life.  He  returned  to  the  East,  and  resumed 
his  post  in  the  army,  as  it  trailed  some  miles  in  the  rear 
of  the  retreating  Emperor.  And  in  the  middle  of  February 
(364)  he  was  amazed  to  learn  that  Jovian  had  died,  after 
a  too  liberal  supper,  and  he  himself  was  called  to  the 
throne.  He  was  compelled  by  the  troops  to  share  the 
power  with  his  brother  Valens,  and,  leaving  the  shorn 
Eastern  provinces  under  the  care  of  Valens,  he  went  on  to 
Milan  to  take  possession  of  the  Western  throne. 

Valeria  Severa,*  the  first  wife  of  Valentinian,  is  one 
of  those  shadowy  Empresses  whose  form  can  hardly  be 
discerned  in  the  records  of  the  time.  She  had  borne 
him  a  son,  the  future  Emperor  Gratian,  five  years  before, 
but  she  does  not  seem  to  have  secured  his  affection,  and 
we  shall  find  her  retiring  in  disgrace  as  soon  as  the 
beautiful  Justina  appears  at  court.  Albia  Dominica,  the 
wife  of  Valens,  is  not  more  interesting,  but  an  Empress 
whom  we  have  dismissed  in  a  former  chapter  at  once 
reappears  at  Constantinople  in  opposition  to  her. 

Before  they  separated  Valens  and  Valentinian  had  fallen 

'  The  Alexandrian  Chronicle  repeatedly  calls  her  Marina,  and  we  have  no 
coins  to  determine  the  full  and  accurate  name.  Colien,  at  least,  gives  no 
coins,  though  Tillemont  refers  to  them. 


308  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

ill  together,  and,  under  the  pretence  that  Julian's  friends 
had  attempted  to  poison  them,  they  turned  with  some 
vindictiveness  upon  the  pagan  officials.  The  aged  and 
respected  Sallust  firmly  controlled  the  inquiry,  and  no 
blood  was  shed ;  but  large  numbers  of  Julian's  officials 
were  displaced — in  many  cases  quite  rightly,  as  Julian's 
zeal  for  paganism  had  had  the  same  evil  effect  in  en- 
couraging hypocrisy  as  the  zeal  of  other  Emperors  for 
Christianity — and  driven  into  sullen  discontent.  Further, 
Dominica's  father,  Petronius,  a  deformed  and  repulsive 
person,  had  risen  to  power  with  his  daughter,  and  was 
grinding  the  faces  of  the  citizens  of  the  East  with  the 
most  extortionate  demands.  A  spark  soon  fell  on  this 
inflammable  world.  Procopius,  a  relative  of  Julian's,  had 
published  a  very  hazy  claim  to  the  Empire  after  Julian's 
death.  He  had  hastily  withdrawn  and  disowned  it,  but 
Valens  sent  men  to  apprehend  him.  Ingeniously  escaping 
the  soldiers,  he  fled  to  Constantinople,  and  seems  there  to 
have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  abler  intriguers.  Two  legions 
were  bought  for  him,  and  they  made  him  Emperor.  There 
was  no  purple  mantle  to  be  obtained,  so  they  clothed  him 
in  a  stagy  tunic  bespangled  with  gold,  put  purple  shoes 
on  his  feet  and  a  piece  of  purple  cloth  in  his  hand,  and 
conducted  him,  amid  the  amazed  and  derisive  spectators, 
to  the  Senate  and  the  Palace. 

His  force  grew  so  quickly  that  the  weak  and  nervous 
Emperor  of  the  East  was  disposed  to  yield  him  the  throne, 
but  his  older  officers  urged  him  to  resist.  In  the  short 
struggle  that  followed  we  meet  again  the  third  wife,  and 
widow,  of  Constantius.  Faustina  had  been  enceinte  at  the 
death  of  her  husband,  and  she  was  living  at  Constantinople, 
with  her  four-year-old  daughter,  when  Procopius  made 
his  romantic  attempt  on  the  throne.  With  some  shrewd- 
ness he  withdrew  her  from  her  retirement,  and  associated 
her  with  him  in  his  claim.  The  legitimate  dynasty  seemed 
to  be  wresting  the  throne  from  usurpers  when  the  widow 
and  daughter  of  the  son  of  Constantine  appeared  at  the 
head  of  the  troops.      Even  when  they   marched  out  to 


JUSTINA  309 

meet  the  forces  of  Valens,  Faustina,  in  a  litter,  accompanied 
them.  But  the  new  hope  of  Faustina  died  away  as  quickly 
as  it  had  been  born.  The  soldiers  were  persuaded  to 
return  to  their  allegiance,  and  the  power  of  Procopius 
swiftly  melted  away.  Faustina  sank  again  into  obscurity, 
and  the  adventurous  career  of  Constantia  was  postponed 
for  some  years. 

Dominica  returned  to  her  position  in  the  enervated 
and  luxurious  court,  and  the  rest  of  her  life  offers  little 
interest.  The  ecclesiastical  historians  describe  her  as 
egging  her  husband  to  persecute  the  Trinitarians,  but 
we  must  read  the  charge  with  discretion.  There  is  little 
positive  trace  of  persecution.  One  day  eighty  Trinitarian 
priests  came  to  plead  their  cause  at  the  court,  and  Valens 
is  said  to  have  ordered  them  back  to  their  ship.  At  some 
distance  from  port  the  vessel  was  found  to  be  aflame, 
and  the  priests  were  burnt  to  death.  The  orthodox  writers 
declare  that  the  vessel  was  purposely  fired,  at  the  command 
of  Valens,  but  it  is  impossible  to  adjust  the  conflicting 
statements  of  the  rival  schools  of  theology.  Valens  was 
an  ardent  Arian,  but  he  upheld  the  principle  of  religious 
toleration,  and  confined  theologians  to  the  use  of  theological 
weapons.  The  only  occasion  on  which  he  is  known  to 
have  ordered  or  countenanced  violent  persecution  was 
in  the  suppression  of  magic.  In  some  obscure  chamber 
of  the  capital  a  group  of  men  resorted  to  this  dark  means 
of  discovering  who  would  be  the  successor  of  Valens. 
Some  say  that  a  ring  dangling  from  a  mystic  tripod 
spelt  out  the  name  on  painted  letters ;  some  that  grains 
of  corn  were  placed  on  letters  of  the  alphabet,  and,  when 
a  cock  was  admitted  to  peck  them,  the  order  of  the  letters 
which  it  first  attacked  was  noticed.  In  either  case,  the 
result  was  to  give  the  letters  Th  E  O  D.  It  would  be 
a  remarkable  forecast,  if  the  story  did  not  belong  to  a 
generation  after  the  accession  of  Theodosius.  However, 
the  attempt  became  known,  and  a  searching  inquiry  and 
savage  persecution  followed.  The  despicable  trade  of  the 
informer  was  encouraged,  whole  libraries  of  valuable  books 


3IO  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

were  destroyed,  and  numbers  of  innocent  philosophers 
and  matrons  were  included  in  the  bloody  lists  of  the 
condemned. 

The  name  of  Dominica  occurs  only  in  one  authentic 
connexion  during  the  reign  of  Valens.  The  Emperor 
passed  the  winter  of  372-3  at  Caesarea  in  Cappadocia, 
where  he  encountered  the  stern  and  uncompromising 
champion  of  orthodoxy,  St.  Basil.  Strong  no  less  in  his 
personal  haughtiness — St.  Jerome  calls  it  pride — than  in 
his  glowing  zeal  for  his  Church,  Basil  emphatically  refused 
to  obey  him,  and  was  threatened  with  banishment.  At 
once  Dominica  and  her  boy  fell  ill.  Besides  two  daughters, 
she  had  had  a  son  in  366,  and  this  boy  fell  into  a  dangerous 
illness.  It  is  said  that  Dominica  learned  in  a  dream  that 
the  illness  was  a  divine  punishment,  but  it  is  not  impossible 
that  her  waking  intelligence  could  arrive  at  that  con- 
clusion. Basil  was  summoned  to  the  palace  once  more. 
Theodoret  would  have  it  that  the  bishop  courteously 
breathed  on  the  boy,  and  declared  that  he  would  re- 
cover if  he  received  Trinitarian  baptism.  The  earlier 
ecclesiastical  writers,  however,  ascribe  to  him  a  firmer 
attitude.  He  asked  Valens  if  the  boy  would  receive 
orthodox  baptism,  and  was  told  that  he  would  not.  "  Let 
him  meet  whatever  fate  God  wills  then,"  said  the  bishop, 
quitting  the  palace.  The  boy  was  baptized  by  the  Arians, 
and  died  during  the  following  night.  A  power  even 
greater  than  that  of  eunuchs,  and  more  imperious  than  that 
of  Emperors,  was  rapidly  growing.  When,  some  days 
later,  one  of  the  favourites  of  Valens,  who  had  risen  from 
the  kitchen,  attempted  to  intervene  in  a  discussion  between 
the  bishop  and  the  Emperor,  Basil  curtly  told  him  to  con- 
fine himself  to  sauces  and  not  interfere  in  Church  matters. 

Five  or  six  years  later  Valens  perished  in  the  war 
with  the  Goths,  and  Dominica  passed  to  the  fitting  obscurity 
of  private  life.  The  one  indication  of  spirit  that  is  recorded 
of  her  is  that,  when  the  victorious  Goths  pressed  on  to 
Constantinople  and  invested  it,  she  paid  the  citizens  out  of 
the  public  treasury  to  arm  themselves  against  the  barbar- 


JUSTINA  3" 

ians.  We  turn  from  her  vague  and  retiring  personality 
to  the  more  interesting  figure  of  Justina,  who  had  some 
years  before  begun  to  share  the  throne  of  Valentinian. 

Valentinian  was  as  fierce  and  choleric  as  his  brother 
was  timid.  A  tall  and  powerful  man,  with  stern  blue 
eyes,  a  brilliant  complexion,  and  light  hair,  he  enlisted 
and  encouraged  his  native  cruelty  in  the  service  of  what 
he  regarded  as  the  interest  of  the  State.  The  pagans  he 
refused  to  persecute,  and  he  did  much  to  promote  the 
higher  culture  of  Rome,  which  was  so  closely  connected 
with  the  pagan  beliefs.  But,  like  his  brother,  he  fell  with 
truculence  upon  all  who  could  be  brought  under  a  com- 
prehensive charge  of  magic  and  divination,  and  the  blood 
of  Italy  flowed  very  freely.  His  hard,  covetous,  and 
brutal  officers  enriched  themselves  in  the  work  of  torture, 
spoliation,  and  execution,  and — though  the  statement  re- 
calls rather  the  savagery  of  Nero  or  Domitian — we  are 
assured  by  the  contemporary  Ammianus  that  he  kept  two 
monstrous  bears  in  cages  near  his  chamber,  and  fed  them 
on  human  victims.  The  slightest  offence  might  incur 
sentence  of  death.  "You  had  better  change  his  head," 
he  is  said  to  have  ordered,  in  brutal  playfulness,  when 
some  official  desired  to  change  to  another  province. 

It  is,  perhaps,  a  circumstance  of  credit  to  Severa  that 
she  failed  to  retain  the  affection  of  Valentinian,  though  a 
less  flattering  reason  is  assigned  by  some  of  the  authorities. 
The  truth  is  that,  since  Valentinian  is  described  as  most 
chaste  and  most  Christian,  the  accession  of  Justina  to  his 
palace  has  caused  the  ecclesiastical  historians  no  little 
perplexity.  The  Church  was  peremptorily  opposed  to 
divorce,  and  regarded  as  adultery  a  second  marriage 
contracted  while  the  first  wife  lived.  Baronius  con- 
veniently removes  Severa  by  death,  but  Ammianus 
informs  us  that  Severa  was  living  long  afterwards  at  the 
court  of  her  son,^  and  the  Alexandrian  Chronicle  expressly 

'  Lib.  xxviil  i  :  He  says  that  Gratian  put  a  certain  man  to  death  "  on 
the  advice  of  his  mother."  Zonaras  says  that  Severa  still  lived  at  the  time 
of  the  second  marriage. 


312  THE   EMPRESSES   OF   ROME 

says  that  Gratian  recalled  his  mother  to  court.  Tillemont 
acknowledges  this,  and  can  only  blush  for  the  guilty 
connivance  of  the  clergy  of  the  period. 

If  we  could  believe  the  ecclesiastical  historian  Socrates, 
Valentinian  avoided  the  sin  of  divorce  and  adultery  by 
promulgating  a  decree  to  the  effect  that  it  was  lawful  to 
have  two  wives,  and  promptly  marrying  Justina  in  addition 
to  Severa.  Of  such  a  law,  however,  we  have  no  trace, 
and  most  writers  follow  the  alternative  theory  of  the 
authorities. 

Aviana  Justina  was  the  widow  of  the  usurper  Mag- 
nentius,  who  had  so  dramatically  stolen  the  throne  of 
the  worthless  Constans,  and  had  been  crushed  by  Con- 
stantius  in  the  year  353.  She  was  a  woman  of  great 
beauty,  the  daughter  of  a  high  provincial  official,  a  spirited 
and  ambitious  young  woman.  She  would  be  in  her  later 
twenties,  at  least,  in  368,  when  she  entered  the  suite  of 
Severa  in  some  capacity.  She  was  soon  associated  so 
intimately  with  the  Empress  that  they  bathed  together,  and 
Severa  made  the  fatal  mistake  of  describing  what  Socrates 
curiously  calls  her  "virginal  beauty"  to  the  sensual 
Valentinian.  Before  long  it  was  announced  that  Severa 
was  divorced,  and  Justina  occupied  her  bed.  A  late 
authority  throws  a  thin  mantle  over  the  action  of 
Valentinian.  Severa,  he  says,  used  her  Imperial  position 
to  compel  a  lady  of  Milan  to  sell  her  an  estate  at  a  most 
inadequate  price,  and  Valentinian  was  unable  to  endure 
her  avarice.  The  vague  description  we  have  of  Justina's 
dazzling  beauty  will,  perhaps,  suffice. 

This  remarkable  conduct  on  the  part  of  Valentinian 
and  Justina  is  put  in  the  year  368.^  The  succeeding 
years  of  war  and  religious  controversy  throw  no  light  on 
the  character  of  Justina,  and  we  need  not  describe  them. 

'  Gratian,  the  youthful  son  of  Severa,  had  been  clothed  with  the  purple  by 
Valentinian,  "  at  the  instigation  of  his  wife  and  father-in-law,"  says  the 
epitomist  of  Aurelius  Victor,  in  the  autumn  of  367.  On  the  other  hand, 
Justina's  brother  was  killed,  in  the  service  of  Valentinian,  in  369.  The  second 
marriage  falls  most  naturally  in  368. 


JUSTINA  313 

Valentinian  died  in  375.  Some  delegates  of  the  barbarians 
had  come,  with  deep  humility,  to  implore  his  clemency  for 
their  invasion  of  his  dominions,  and  Valentinian  burst  into 
one  of  his  appalling  storms  of  rage.  So  violent  was  his 
fury  in  addressing  them  that  he  burst  a  blood-vessel,  and 
left  the  Western  Empire  to  his  son  Gratian.  Gratian  had 
married  in  the  previous  year.  His  Empress  was  the 
daughter  of  Faustina,  who  had  been  borne  in  her  mother's 
arms  at  the  head  of  the  troops  of  Procopius.  In  cross- 
ing the  provinces  to  meet  Gratian,  Constantia  had  had  a 
singular  adventure.  While  she  was  dining  at  an  inn,  some 
twenty-six  miles  from  Sirmium,  the  tribes  broke  across  the 
Danube  and  occupied  the  village.  There  was  just  time  for 
the  Governor  of  Illyrium  to  snatch  up  the  thirteen-year-old 
princess  and  make  a  dash  for  Sirmium.  She  married 
Gratian  in  374,  and  became  Empress  of  the  West  in  the 
following  year.  But  Flavia  Maxima  Constantia  has  left 
only  the  faint  impress  of  her  early  adventures  on  the 
chronicles  of  the  time,  and  the  few  years  of  her  Imperial 
life  have  no  interest  for  us.  The  next  mention  of  her  is 
that  she  died  some  time  before  her  husband,  who  was 
assassinated  in  383.  He  had  married  again,  but  his  widow, 
Laeta,  is  a  mere  name  in  history.  Theodosius  gave  a 
comfortable  income  to  Laeta  and  her  mother  Pissamena, 
and  they  were  distinguished  for  their  charity  in  the  later 
misfortunes  of  Rome. 

When  Valentinian  had  died  in  a  fit  of  rage  at  Bregetio, 
Justina  and  her  four-year-old  boy,  Valentinian  the  younger, 
were  in  the  town  of  Murocincta,  a  hundred  miles  away. 
Justina  hastened  to  the  camp,  and  it  was  presently  an- 
nounced that  the  army  had  decided  to  associate  the  boy 
with  Gratian  in  the  rule  of  the  West.  Gratian,  the  most 
temperate  and  promising  of  the  Emperors  of  the  period, 
published  his  consent.  A  refusal  to  acknowledge  the  boy, 
and  an  attempt  to  punish  the  intrigue  by  which  Justina 
retained  her  power,  would  have  involved  a  civil  war, 
and  the  whole  of  his  forces  were  now  needed  to  stem  the 
flood  of  barbarism  that  surged  against  the  northern  frontier 


314  THE   EMPRESSES   OF   ROME 

of  the  Empire.  The  last  days  of  Rome  were  fast  approach- 
ing. From  the  remote  deserts  of  Asia  a  fierce  and 
numerous  people,  the  Huns,  had  entered  Europe,  and  were 
sweeping  the  Goths  and  other  Teutonic  tribes  southward. 
Gratian  appointed  an  Emperor  of  the  East,  whom  we 
shall  meet  presently,  in  the  place  of  Valens,  and  spent 
his  strength  in  heroic  efforts  to  defend  the  threatened 
frontier. 

Justina  returned  with  the  boy-Emperor  to  Milan.  As 
long  as  Gratian  lived,  Justina  was  restricted  to  the  life 
of  the  palace,  but  in  383  the  throne  was  usurped  by 
Maximus,  and  Gratian  was  murdered  by  one  of  his 
emissaries.  Gibbon  generously  traces  the  general  dis- 
satisfaction out  of  which  this  revolt  emerged  to  a 
deterioration  of  the  character  of  Gratian.  This  deteriora- 
tion cannot  be  questioned,  but  one  particular  outcome  of 
it,  the  active  persecution  of  the  pagans,  was  probably 
his  most  fatal  error.  Milan  was  now  dominated  by  the 
imperious  and  zealous  St.  Ambrose,  and  the  two  young 
Emperors  were  expressly  under  his  control.  At  the 
suggestion  of  Ambrose,  Gratian  abandoned  Valentinian's 
policy  of  toleration.  He  rejected  the  title  of  Pontifex 
Maximus,  ordered  the  removal  of  the  statue  of  Victory 
from  the  Roman  Senate,  and  confiscated  the  estates  of 
the  temples.  He  even  admitted  the  abusive  epithet 
"  pagans "  (or  "  villagers "),  which  the  more  forward 
Christians  were  beginning  to  use,  in  his  official  decrees.^ 
This  must  have  inflamed  the  general  discontent,  and  the 
army  of  Maximus  marched  peacefully  over  Gaul,  and 
occupied  the  Empire  as  far  as  the  Alps.  The  Emperor 
of  the  East,  Theodosius,  consented  that  Britain,  Gaul, 
and  Spain  should  remain  under  the  rule  of  Maximus, 
and  Justina  continued  to  rule  the  curtailed  dominions  of 
her  son. 

It  was    now  discovered    that    Justina  was    an  Arian. 

•  Yet  St.  Augustine,  who  was  in  Rome  the  year  after  the  death  of  Gratian, 
says  in  his  "  Confessions "  (viii.  2)  that  "  nearly  the  whole  nobility  of 
Rome  "  still  clung  to  the  old  religion. 


JUSTINA  31 S 

Whether  she  had  concealed  her  beliefs  during  the  life 
of  Valentinian,  or  had  been  recently  won  to  the  sect,  it 
is  impossible  to  say ;  but  Ambrose  now  found  that  he 
had  a  stubborn  opponent  of  his  religious  ambition.  The 
trouble  culminated  in  385,  when  scenes  were  witnessed 
that  effectively  impress  on  us  the  change  that  had  come 
over  the  Roman  Empire.  Justina  ordered  that  one  of 
the  Christian  churches  of  the  city  should  be  put  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Arian  clergy.  Ambrose  sternly  refused, 
and,  when  he  was  summoned  to  the  palace,  and  a  sentence 
of  banishment  was  apprehended,  the  people  flocked  to 
the  palace  and  intimidated  the  Empress  and  her  coun- 
sellors. A  little  later,  the  Gothic  (Arian)  soldiers  were 
sent  to  occupy  the  church,  and  orders  were  given  that  it 
should  be  prepared  for  the  Empress's  devotions.  A  renewal 
of  the  riot,  and  the  showering  of  the  vilest  epithets  upon 
the  person  of  the  Empress,  forced  her  to  retire  once  more. 
In  the  following  year,  386,  she  passed  sentence  of  exile 
on  the  bishop,  and  her  spirit  was  expended  in  a  final 
struggle.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Rome — a 
true  index  of  its  profound  demoralization — the  troops  were 
prevented  by  the  people  from  carrying  out  an  Imperial 
decree.  Ambrose  was  guarded  day  and  night  by  thousands 
of  his  followers.  The  chief  church  and  the  episcopal  house 
were  fortified  as  if  for  a  siege,  and  the  troops  of  "  Jezebel  " 
had  to  stand  inactive  before  a  mob  of  citizens.  On  the 
advice  of  Theodosius,  Justina  refrained  from  any  further 
attempt.  Indeed,  her  attention  was  soon  violently  with- 
drawn to  a  very  different  danger. 

The  ambition  of  Maximus  had  once  more  outrun  its 
bounds,  and  he  coveted  the  remaining  provinces  of  Valen- 
tinian. Justina's  conduct  betrays  that  her  ability  was 
inferior  to  her  spirit.  Duped  by  the  treacherous  diplomacy 
of  Maximus,  she  was  suddenly  informed  that  the  hostile 
forces  of  Maximus  were  close  to  Milan,  and  she  fled  hastily 
to  the  coast.  At  Aquileia  she  and  her  son  took  ship  for 
the  East.  The  soldiers  of  Maximus  followed  them  on  swift 
galleys,  but  they  rounded  the  south  of  Greece  in  safety, 


3l6  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

and  landed  at  Thessalonica.  Her  task  now  was  to  induce 
Theodosius  to  espouse  their  cause,  and  it  proved  to  be  one 
of  nearer  proportion  to  her  talent. 

Her  pressing  appeals  to  Theodosius  for  aid  were  parried 
or  unheeded  for  some  time.  If  we  may  believe  Theodoret, 
the  only  reply  which  she  received  was  a  painful  assurance 
that  the  heresy  she  entertained,  and  in  which  she  was 
educating  her  son,  was  a  sufficient  cause  of  all  the  evils 
that  had  come  upon  them.  She  was  directed  to  await  a 
visit  from  Theodosius  at  Thessalonica,  and  the  visit  was 
much  delayed.  Historians  usually  depict  the  Emperor  as 
held  in  suspense  by  a  painful  dilemma.  Not  only  would 
it  be  a  serious  thing  for  the  Empire,  surrounded  as  it  was 
with  peril,  to  engage  the  forces  of  the  East  and  the  West  in 
an  exhausting  civil  war,  but  Theodosius  would,  in  such  a 
war,  be  attacking  an  orthodox  Catholic  in  the  interest  of 
a  fanatical  Arian  and  enemy  of  the  Church;  and  Theodosius 
was  a  most  zealous  Trinitarian.  The  difficulty  must  have 
occurred  to  him,  and  it  would  not  be  fantastical  to  assume 
that  there  had  been  some  correspondence  between  the 
prelates  of  the  East  and  the  prelates  of  the  West,  to  ensure 
that  the  point  did  not  escape  him. 

The  pagan  Zosimus  has  a  different  theory  of  the  delay 
of  Theodosius.  The  character  of  that  Emperor  was,  he 
says,  a  singular  union  of  contradictions.  He  could  blaze 
with  the  fury  of  a  Valentinian,  or  bend  his  head  meekly  for 
the  blessing  of  a  bishop ;  he  could  lead  the  troops  through 
a  campaign  with  the  most  signal  dexterity,  energy,  and 
success,  and  then  relax  into  the  most  ignoble  indolence ; 
he  could  embrace  the  rigour  of  a  soldier's  life  without 
the  least  effort  to  soften  it,  and  then  resign  himself  to  the 
most  voluptuous  day-dreams  in  his  Imperial  palace.  Justina, 
Zosimus  says,  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  need  his  aid  during 
one  of  his  periods  of  luxury  and  "  insane  pursuit  of 
pleasure."  He  resented  the  effort  to  awaken  him  from  it. 
His  deep  indebtedness  to  Gratian,  however,  who  had  con- 
ferred the  Empire  on  him,  at  length  forced  him  to  cross 
the  Greek  sea,  and  visit  Justina  at  Thessalonica.     From  the 


AELIA   FLACCILLA 


HONORIA 

B^(I.AKGBD    FROM    COINS   IN   THE    HKITISH    MUSELM 


JUSTIN  A  317 

time  of  that  visit  his  pulse  was  quickened,  and  he  began 
a  vigorous  preparation  for  war  with  Maximus.  Justina 
had  with  her  at  Thessalonica,  not  only  the  insipid  boy 
Valentinian,  but  a  pretty  young  daughter,  Galla,  and 
Theodosius  had  fallen  in  love  with  her.  Justina  promptly 
perceived,  and  artfully  used,  her  opportunity,  and  it  was 
arranged  that  the  pretty  princess  should  be  his  reward 
for  restoring  the  Western  Empire  to  Valentinian  and  his 
mother. 

Theodosius,  who  is  incomparably  the  leading  ruler  of 
the  fourth  century,  had  come  from  the  same  part  of  Spain 
as  Trajan,  to  whom  some  of  the  writers  of  the  time 
compare  him — with  no  little  flattery.  His  father,  Count 
Theodosius,  had  been  an  able  commander  and  a  just 
administrator,  but  had  been  unjustly  disgraced  and  executed 
owing  to  some  obscure  jealousy.  Later  writers,  thinking 
of  the  magical  Th  E  O  D  of  Antioch,  believed  that  his 
name  led  to  his  undoing.  The  younger  Theodosius,  a 
cultivated  and  skilful  officer,  retired  to  his  estates  in  Spain, 
from  which  he  was  drawn  by  Gratian,  and  presently 
clothed  with  the  purple.  He  had,  in  376  or  377,  married  a 
Spanish  lady,  JElia.  Flaccilla,  who  is  believed,  on  slender 
grounds,  to  have  been  the  daughter  of  the  consul  Antonius. 
Their  son  Arcadius,  the  future  Emperor,  was  born  during 
the  retirement  in  Spain.  A  daughter,  Pulcheria,  was  born 
in  Spain  while  Theodosius  was  on  campaign.  Then 
Flaccilla  found  herself  transferred  from  the  quiet  Spanish 
estate  to  the  pomp  of  Constantinople,  and  the  second  son, 
Honorius,  was  born  in  the  purple. 

Although  Flaccilla  is  canonized  in  the  Greek  Church, 
it  does  not  appear  that  she  had  a  marked  individuality. 
She  is  one  of  the  crowd  of  fourth-century  Empresses  who 
live  in  the  chronicles  only  as  generous  benefactors  of  the 
Church.  Theodosius  was  the  first  Emperor  to  persecute 
his  pagan  subjects  on  the  ground  of  religion,  and  his 
successive  decrees  quickly  changed  the  religious  aspect  of 
the  East.  His  modern  biographers,  Ifland  and  Gtllden- 
penning  ("  Der  Kaiser  Theodosius  "),  lay  much  of  the  blame 


3i8  THE   EMPRESSES   OF   ROME 

for  these  violent  measures  on  Flaccilla,  but  they  point  out 
that  the  coercive  legislation  begins  just  after  Theodosius 
came  under  the  influence  of  Bishop  Acholius  during  a 
severe  illness,  and  that  his  efforts  to  crush  paganism  by 
violence  relaxed  with  his  advance  in  age  and  experience. 
All  that  we  learn  of  Flaccilla  is  that  she  was  generous  to 
the  Church  and  the  poor,  and  that  she  occasionally  curbed 
the  fiery  and  vindictive  temper  of  Theodosius.  She  seems 
to  have  died  in  the  year  385,  and  the  Greek  ritual  celebrates 
her  memory  on  September  14th. 

Theodosius  was,  therefore,  a  middle-aged  widower — his 
biographers  put  his  birth  in  346— when,  in  the  autumn  of 
387,  Justina   presented   her  daughter  Galla   to   him.     Dr. 
Ifland   admits   that   the  young  girl   probably   turned   the 
hesitating  scale   of  his  judgment.     He   returned  to  Con- 
stantinople, and  made  energetic  preparations  for  war.    A 
two    months'   campaign    in    the    following    summer  (388) 
completely  destroyed  the  forces  of  Maximus,  and  the  full 
Empire  of  the  West   was   restored   to  Valentinian.      But 
Justina  had  little  personal  profit  by  the  victory.     Zosimus 
tells  us  that  she  "  supplied  the  deficiencies  of  her  son  as 
well  as  a  woman  can  "   after  the  return   to   Milan,  while 
Sozomen  declared  that  she  died  before  the  return.     The 
point  is  obscure,  but  the  evidence  suggests,  on  the  whole, 
that  she  returned  to  Milan.     It  was,  however,  to  a  different 
Milan  from  that  she  had  quitted.     Theodosius  accompanied 
them,  and  the  strong,  earnest  character  of  Ambrose  made 
a  deep  impression  on  him.     Valentinian  was  *'  converted  " 
to  the  true  creed,  and  the  policy  of  persecution  was  intro- 
duced into  the  Western  world.   Justina  must  have  remained 
a  powerless  and  embittered  spectator  of  the  ascendancy  of 
Ambrose.    So  great  did  it  become  that  the  coldest  decisions 
of   the    Emperor  were  reversed   by   him,   and   his   trans- 
gressions were  ignominiously  punished.    The  news  came 
to  Milan  that  the  monks  and  populace  of  a  small  town  in 
Persia  had  burned  the  synagogue  of  the  Jews,  and  that  the 
prefect  had  ordered  them  to  rebuild  the  synagogue  and 
restore    its    property.      Theodosius    confirmed    the    just 


JUSTINA  319 

sentence,  but  Ambrose  assailed  him  so  strongly,  in  letter 
and  sermon,  that  he  was  obliged  to  give  complete  im- 
munity to  the  offenders ;  and  the  wave  of  violence — the 
burning  of  temples  and  synagogues,  and  the  despoiling 
and  slaying  of  unbelievers  and  heretics  of  all  shades — 
continued  to  roll  destructively  over  the  East.  The  more 
impressive  incident  of  Theodosius,  the  greatest  ruler  of 
his  time,  standing  in  the  humble  attitude  of  a  penitent 
in  the  church  at  Milan  is  well  known.  The  people  of 
Thessalonica,  stung  by  the  heavy  taxation  which  the  ex- 
travagant rule  of  Theodosius  imposed  on  the  East,  and  the 
quartering  of  barbaric  troops  on  them,  took  some  occasion 
to  riot,  and  slew  the  representatives  of  the  Emperor.  In 
a  fit  of  passion  Theodosius  turned  his  troops  upon  the 
defenceless  people,  whom  he  had  treacherously  invited  to 
the  Circus,  and  a  horrible  and  unexampled  massacre  was 
perpetrated.  Ambrose  nobly  insisted  that  the  Emperor 
must  expiate  .his  crime  like  the  humblest  member  of  his 
tlock.    The  world  was  entering  upon  a  new  era. 

How  much  of  these  proceedings  Justina  lived  to  see  it 
is  impossible  to  determine.  She  died  some  time  between 
388  and  391;  the  obscurity  of  her  death  is  a  sufficient  proof 
of  her  powerlessness  in  her  last  years.  Valentinian,  whose 
weakness  was  hardly  compensated  by  the  propriety  of  his 
conduct  and  his  docility  to  St.  Ambrose,  was  instructed  in 
the  elements  of  government  by  the  older  Emperor,  who 
remained  three  years  in  Italy,  to  the  lasting  grief  of  its 
pagan  citizens.  He  visited  Rome,  where  the  majority  of 
the  leading  citizens  still  clung  to  an  idealized  version  of  the 
old  cult,  and  appealed  to  the  Senate  to  abandon  the  dying 
gods.  No  answer  was  made  to  his  appeal,  and  he  resorted 
to  the  growing  practice  of  coercive  legislation.  In  391  he 
returned  to  Constantinople. 

Galla  had  married  Theodosius  soon  after  the  destruction 
of  Maximus.  The  Chronicle  of  Marcellinus  puts  the 
marriage  in  386 ;  Zosimus,  more  plausibly,  implies  that 
it  took  place  in  387  or  388.  From  a  curious  statement  in 
the  Chronicle  of  Marcellinus  it  seems  that  she  was  sent  to 


320  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

live  in  the  palace  at  Constantinople  while  Theodosius 
remained  in  Italy.  The  statement  is  that  the  elder  son  of 
the  Emperor,  Arcadius,  a  boy  of  thirteen  years,  drove  her 
out  of  the  palace.  Commentators  are  loath  to  believe  that 
so  young  a  prince  could  do  this,  but  it  is  not  in  the  least 
impossible,  and  the  authority  is  respectable.  We  shall 
see  that  Arcadius  was  a  peevish  and  worthless  prince, 
indolently  guided  by  eunuchs  and  servants,  and  capable 
of  very  cruel  decisions.  Theodosius  had  departed  from 
the  finer  Imperial  tradition  of  appointing  a  grave  and 
distinguished  scholar  as  the  tutor  of  his  sons,  and  had 
committed  them  to  the  care  of  a  Roman  deacon,  Arsenius, 
who  had  a  repute  for  piety.  We  can  hardly  regard  the 
authority  of  a  late  Greek  writer  (Metaphrastes)  as  weighty 
enough  to  commend  the  statement  that  Arcadius  set  his 
servants  to  take  the  life  of  Arsenius  for  whipping  him, 
but  the  unhappy  events  of  the  next  chapter  will  show  that 
the  only  result  of  this  kind  of  education  was  to  leave  the 
character  unformed,  and  throw  the  stress  on  external 
observances. 

In  391  Theodosius  returned  to  Constantinople,  and 
Galla  entered  upon  her  brief  Imperial  career.  Whether 
or  no  we  accept  the  biased  picture  which  Zosimus  offers 
us  of  the  Eastern  court,  it  is  clear  that  it  sustained  a  soft 
and  excessive  luxury  at  the  cost  of  the  enfeebled  Empire. 
Large  numbers  of  eunuchs  found  employment,  and,  with 
the  genius  of  their  class,  intrigued  for  favour  in  the  sleeping 
quarters,  and  in  the  service  of  the  Empress  and  the  Imperial 
children.  The  kitchen  employed  a  regiment  of  ministers 
to  the  heavy  and  voluptuous  table ;  the  circus  and  theatre 
supported  vast  numbers  of  mimes,  dancers,  and  charioteers. 
Besides  this  large  army  of  ministers  to  the  Imperial 
pleasure,  a  second  army  of  idle  and  avaricious  place-seekers 
beset  the  palace,  and  extorted  a  generous  revenue  from 
the  offices  which  were  created  for  them  in  the  army  and 
the  administration.  It  is  even  said  that  such  offices  were 
openly  sold  in  the  public  places  and  in  the  palace  of 
Constantinople.      Strenuous   as  Theodosius   was    in    the 


JUSTINA  321 

field,  he  was  not  strong  enough  to  sustain  the  burden  of 
peace,  and  he  unconsciously  prepared  the  Empire  for  the 
avalanche  that  was  soon  to  be  cast  upon  it. 

But  the  drowsy  indulgence  of  Theodosius  was  soon 
startled  once  more  by  a  call  to  arms  from  the  West.  In 
the  spring  of  392  Valentinian  was  slain,  or  in  despair  slew 
himself,  and  a  Frankish  commander  had  put  his  purpk 
robe  upon  the  shoulders  of  a  Roman  rhetorician.  The 
young  Emperor  had  been  so  overshadowed  by  the  power 
of  his  general  that  he  had  attempted  to  dismiss  him,  and 
had  then  been  found  dead  with  a  cord  round  his  neck. 
Theodosius  again  hesitated  to  exchange  the  softness  of 
his  palace  for  the  rigours  of  a  campaign.  Galla  "  filled  the 
palace  with  her  lamentations,"  but  Theodosius  sent  away 
the  ambassadors  of  the  usurper  with  pleasant  words  and 
presents,  and  continued  for  nearly  two  years  to  resist  the 
appeals  of  his  young  Empress.  It  was  not  until  the 
summer  of  394  that  he  led  out  his  legions  for  the  punish- 
ment of  the  murderer,  as  Argobastes  was  believed  to  be. 
Galla  did  not  live  to  see  her  brother  avenged.  She  died 
in  childbirth  just  as  the  army  was  about  to  start,  and 
Theodosius  is  said  to  have  mourned  for  her  one  day  and 
then  started  for  Italy. 

The  issue  does  not  now  concern  us.  We  pass  on  to  a 
fresh  generation,  a  new  and  more  interesting  group  of 
Empresses  and  princesses.  Suffice  it  to  say  that,  partly 
by  valour,  partly  by  accident  and  treachery,  the  forces  of 
Argobastes  were  destroyed,  and  the  empurpled  rhetorician 
was  slain.  The  younger  son  of  the  Emperor,  Honorius, 
was  summoned  from  the  East,  and  placed  upon  the  throne 
of  the  West.  Arcadius  remained  in  feeble  charge  of  the 
throne  of  Constantinople.  And  within  a  few  months 
the  powerful  Emperor  sank  into  the  grave,  and  the 
Empire  entered  upon  the  unhappy  reigns  of  Arcadius  and 
Honorius. 


ai 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  ROMANCE  OF  EUDOXIA  AND  EUDOCIA 

WITH  the  Imperial  ladies  of  the  courts  of  Arcadius 
and  Honorius  we  enter  upon  the  final  act  in  the 
tragedy  of  the  fall  of  Rome.  The  sun  is  sinking 
rapidly  to  the  Western  horizon  ;  the  long  shadows  trail 
across  the  record  of  events ;  the  chill  of  evening  contracts 
the  life  of  the  historic  Empire.  The  only  aspect  of  that 
tragedy  that  concerns  us  is  a  consideration  of  the  part 
that  women  played  in  the  gradual  enfeeblement  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  While  taking  full  account  of  the  various 
causes  assigned  by  historians,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
fall  of  Rome  was  due  to  a  coincidence.  The  invasion  of 
Europe  by  the  fierce  Huns  had  pressed  the  Germanic 
tribes  against  the  Roman  frontier  just  at  the  time  when 
the  Empire  was  particularly  feeble.  That  it  was  inwardly 
outworn  and  doomed — that  the  organization  of  a  State 
has  an  appointed  term  of  decay,  like  the  frame  of  an 
individual — may  be  confidently  challenged.  Egypt  main- 
tained its  vigour  for  close  on  8,000  years ;  Babylon  for 
nearly  6,000. 

The  only  question  we  may  touch  here  is  whether  the 
personality  of  the  later  Empresses  counted  for  anything, 
either  for  good  or  evil,  in  this  enfeeblement  of  the  Empire ; 
and  the  answer  is  clear  that,  with  one  or  two  exceptions, 
they  counted  for  neither.  They  had  no  deep  or  large 
influence  on  the  life  of  the  Empire,  even  through  their 
husbands.  The  Roman  ideal  of  womanhood  was  changing 
once   more.     As    in    the   early  days,   they   were   diverted 

322 


THE   ROMANCE   OF  EUDOXIA   AND   EUDOCIA     323 

from  interest  in  public  affairs,  except  in  so  far  as  the 
cause  of  the  Church  called  for  their  interference.  We  must 
not  conceive  them  as  powerless  witnesses  of  the  gradual 
dissolution  of  the  Empire.  No  one,  man  or  woman,  saw 
that  the  Empire  was  dissolving,  or  dreamed  of  its  fall, 
until  it  lay  in  ruins  under  the  feet  of  the  northern  tribes. 
None  reflected  that,  since  Constantine  had  assumed  the 
purple,  thirteen  Emperors  out  of  twenty  had  been  either 
executed  or  murdered ;  that  the  blood  of  able  officers  or 
servants  had  generally  been  mingled  with  that  of  the 
fallen  ruler;  and  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  soldiers 
had  been  wasted  in  civil  war.  None  reflected  that,  while 
they  were  distracted  with  religious  quarrels,  a  formidable 
avalanche  was  gathering  on  the  hills ;  or  that,  while  the 
courts  absorbed  enormous  sums  in  Oriental  display,  the 
fiscal  machinery  of  the  State  was  running  down.  In  any 
case,  it  was  no  longer  the  place  of  women  to  notice 
these  things.  Their  duties  were  to  rear  the  Imperial 
family,  wear  pretty  robes  of  cloth  of  gold,  and  build 
churches.  The  age  of  Livia,  Agrippina,  or  Plotina,  was 
over. 

These  reflections  will  be  enforced  by  the  lives  of  the 
interesting  Empresses  whom  we  have  next  to  consider. 
The  new  Emperors  were  unmarried  youths  at  the  time 
when  their  father  died.  Arcadius,  a  little,  dark,  unpleasant- 
looking  youth,  whose  laziness  appeared  in  his  dull,  lustre- 
less eyes,  was  in  his  eighteenth  year.  Honorius  was  a  boy 
of  eleven,  and  as,  during  a  reign  of  twenty-eight  years, 
he  never  rose  above  the  character  or  intelligence  of  a  boy, 
and  his  two  Empresses  were  timid  young  girls,  we  must 
dismiss  them  in  a  page;  though  that  page  must  contain 
an  event  that  sent  a  thrill  of  excitement  through  civilization 
— the  fall  of  the  city  of  Rome.  So  little  had  our  Imperial 
characters  to  do  with  it  that  a  later  age  amused  itself  by 
saying  that,  when  Honorius  was  told  that  "  Rome  was 
taken,"  he  wept  for  the  supposed  loss  of  his  favourite 
fowl,  which  bore  that  name. 

The   real   master   of  the  Western   world,  over   which 


324  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

young  Honorius  had  nominal  sway,  was  a  powerful  and 
gifted  commander,  Stilicho,  of  Vandal  extraction.  He  had 
married  Serena,  the  beautiful  niece  of  Theodosius,  and 
he  led  the  armies  and  governed  the  Western  Empire  until 
his  death.  In  398,  in  his  thirteenth  year,  Honorius  was 
directed  to  wed  Maria,  the  elder  daughter  of  Stilicho.  It 
was  said  that  Theodosius  had  desired  the  union.  Serena, 
at  all  events,  desired  it,  and,  although  her  daughter 
was  yet  immature,  the  wedding  took  place  at  Milan  in 
398.  All  that  we  have  to  say  of  her  is  that  she  died  some 
time  within  the  next  ten  years — probably,  as  Tillemont 
calculates,  in  the  year  404.  Her  body  was  embalmed 
and  buried  in  a  Christian  church  at  Rome,  where  the 
poor  crumbling  frame,  laden  with  gold,  was  discovered 
in  1544. 

In  the  year  408  Honorius  married  his  deceased  wife's 
sister,  Thermantia.  Tillemont  very  properly  laments  that 
he  finds  no  record  of  any  protest  on  the  part  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome — who  probably  celebrated  it — against  this 
irregular  marriage,  but  the  modern  reader  will  be  more 
seriously  concerned  to  hear  the  argument  with  which 
Serena  urged  it  upon  her  reluctant  husband.  Maria,  she 
said,  had  died  a  virgin.  Before  entrusting  her  immature 
child  to  the  bed  of  Honorius,  she  had  had  some  obscure 
operation  performed  on  her,  which  would  guard  her 
virginity.  Certainly,  Maria  had  had  no  children.  Ther- 
mantia was  equally  unprepared  for  marriage,  Zosimus  says, 
and  the  operation  was  repeated.  It  was  a  superfluous 
sacrifice  to  the  ambition  of  Serena,  because  Stilicho  fell,  in 
a  palace  intrigue,  a  few  months  later,  and  the  little  maid 
was  restored  to  her  mother. 

Such  was  the  short  and  melancholy  story  of  the 
Empresses  Maria  and  iEmilia  Materna  Thermantia,  as 
an  inscription  calls  the  younger.  Their  monument  was 
terrible.  Within  a  few  months  the  avalanche  of  the  Gothic 
army  descended  from  the  Alps  and  devastated  Italy ;  and 
Serena  was,  with  the  consent  of  her  cousin  Placidia,  the 
Emperor's  sister,  strangled  by  the  Senate  on  the  light,  and 


THE   ROMANCE   OF  EUDOXIA  AND  EUDOCIA     325 

probably  false,  charge  of  communicating  with  the  enemy. 
Zosimus,  at  least,  says  that  she  was  innocent ;  but  he  is 
not  surprised  at  her  fate,  as  she  had  one  day  appropriated 
a  jewelled  ornament  from  'the  statue  of  one  of  his  goddesses. 
Within  two  years  Rome  was  sacked  by  the  Goths,  and 
Placidia  was  carried  off  by  them. 

We  turn  to  the  East,  to  follow  the  less  tragic,  but  hardly 
less  interesting,  fortunes  of  Eudoxia  and  Eudocia.  In  the 
East,  as  in  the  West,  Theodosius  had  left  a  powerful 
minister  to  guide  the  hands  of  his  young  and  unpromising 
son.  But  the  eastern  minister,  Rufinus,  had  not  the  manly 
qualities  of  Stilicho.  He  had  entered  the  palace  by  craft, 
not  by  military  exploits,  and  had  easily  dissembled  his 
vices  from  the  too  indulgent  eye  of  Theodosius.  When 
that  Emperor  died,  he  cast  aside  the  cloak,  and  pursued 
his  native  avarice,  and  exercised  his  cruelty,  without 
restraint.  By  fines,  taxes,  despoilments,  and  the  unscrupu- 
lous ruin  of  his  opponents,  the  hated  Gaul  amassed 
wealth  and  power,  and  ruled  like  an  autocrat.  He  had  a 
daughter  of  marriageable  age,  and  Arcadius  seemed  to  listen 
in  compliant  mood  when  he  proposed  that  she  should 
become  his  Empress.  The  task  of  destroying  an  opponent 
took  him  for  a  time  to  Antioch,  and  he  returned  to  hear 
that  the  Emperor  was  preparing  for  marriage.  He  awaited 
the  appointed  day  with  eagerness.  At  length  the  hymeneal 
procession  set  out  from  the  palace,  and  the  people  gathered 
to  witness  its  passage  to  the  house  of  Rufinus,  a  superb 
villa  in  one  of  the  suburbs.  To  the  intense  surprise  of  all, 
it  stopped  at  a  house  in  the  city,  and  the  blushing  and 
beautiful  daughter  of  a  Prankish  chief  was  announced  to 
be  the  choice  of  the  Emperor. 

While  Rufinus  was  pursuing  his  vengeance  at  Antioch, 
the  eunuchs  of  the  palace  had  conspired  to  defeat  his 
plan  and  undermine  his  power.  The  chief  of  them  was 
Eutropius,  a  slave  by  birth,  castrated  immediately  after 
birth  that  he  might  bring  a  bigger  price,  and  rising  in  time 
from  the  occupation  of  hair-dresser  to  the  daughter  of 
General  Arintheus  to  the  position  of  high  chamberlain  at 


326  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

the  palace.  Such  were  the  rulers  of  Emperors  in  the 
fourth  century.  Eutropius  knew  that  Arcadius  had  no 
attraction  to  the  daughter  of  Rufinus,  and  chafed  under  the 
authority  of  her  burly  father.  He  cast  about  for  a  prettier 
companion,  and  soon  had  the  affection  of  Arcadius  safely 
engaged.  The  temporary  absence  of  Rufinus  gave  them  an 
opportunity,  and  Constantinople  was  enlivened  by  the  rare 
spectacle  of  an  Imperial  marriage,  and  the  still  rarer 
spectacle  of  the  defeat  of  Rufinus. 

Eudoxia— such  is  the  Greek  name  under  which  the  new 
Empress  is  presented  to  us — was  the  beautiful  daughter  of 
Bauto,  chief  of  the  Franks.  Historians,  politely  accepting 
the  assurance  of  some  of  the  writers  of  the  time,  say  that 
she  was  being  "educated"  at  Constantinople,  her  father 
having  died  in  the  service  of  the  Eastern  army.  It  is, 
perhaps,  a  pity  to  disturb  the  plausible  phrase,  but  the 
duty  of  a  biographer  is  stern.  The  house  in  the  city  from 
which  she  was  taken  to  wed  the  Emperor  was  occupied  by 
two  young  men  of  wealth.  They  were  the  sons  of  the 
commander  Promotus,  who  had  been  one  of  the  first 
victims  of  Rufinus.  One  of  these  young  men,  Zosimus 
says,  "  had  a  beautiful  maid  "  in  the  house.  We  will  not 
inquire  too  closely.  The  stern  ideals  of  the  Germanic 
tribes  had  relaxed  as  they  came  into  closer  contact  with 
civilization,  and  it  became  common  for  them  to  lend  or  sell 
their  daughters  to  the  Romans.  We  remember  the  adven- 
ture of  Pipera  a  century  before.  Eutropius  submitted  an 
adequate  picture  of  the  girl  to  Arcadius,  whose  pulse  was 
quickened,  and  the  son  of  Promotus  easily  parted  with  his 
tender  pupil  when  he  learned  that  it  was  for  the  purpose 
of  discomfiting  the  destroyer  of  his  father. 

Eudoxia  had  no  less  spirit  than  beauty  of  person,  and 
she  would  watch  with  interest  the  duel  between  the  wily 
eunuch  and  the  powerful  Gaul.  Arcadius,  "  whose  feeble 
and  stupid  goodness,"  says  Tillemont  candidly,  "brought 
frightful  evils  on  Church  and  State,"  was  a  pawn  in  the 
game.  But  the  big,  wealthy,  powerful  Gaul  now  found 
a  sterner  opponent  in  Stilicho,  of  the  Western  Empire,  and 


THE   ROMANCE   OF  EUDOXIA  AND   EUDOCIA     327 

within  a  year  his  head  was  separated  from  his  body,  and 
his  wife  and  daughter  were  permitted  to  remain  alive  at 
Jerusalem.  Eutropius  and  Eudoxia  now  "  led  Arcadius 
like  a  dumb  beast,"  in  the  words  of  Zosimus,  and  sucked 
the  resources  of  the  Empire.  The  people  of  Constantinople 
gained  nothing  by  the  revolution.  They  had  carried  in 
triumph  the  grisly,  extortionate  hand  of  Rufinus  through 
the  streets  of  the  city,  but  the  supple  hand  of  the  eunuch 
proved  as  formidable.  He  surrounded  himself  with  spies 
and  informers,  filled  the  prisons  with  men  whose  property 
he  desired  for  himself  or  his  friends,  scattered  statues  of 
himself  through  the  city,  and  assumed  every  title  of  honour 
short  of  that  of  Augustus.  He  would  press  his  deformed 
person  and  painted  face  into  the  armour  of  a  man,  to 
review  the  troops,  and  would  harangue  the  Senate  with  a 
feeble  imitation  of  the  authority  of  a  statesman.  While 
his  exactions  and  the  luxury  of  the  court  enfeebled  the 
Empire  of  the  East,  he  alienated  the  power  of  the  West,  and 
had  Stilicho  branded  as  a  public  enemy.  And  the  Goths 
and  Huns  crept  nearer. 

Arcadius,  lazily  riding  in  his  gold-plated  chariot,  studded 
with  large  gems,  in  robes  of  silk  embroidered  with  golden 
dragons,  or  playing  the  monarch  on  a  throne  of  solid  gold, 
with  a  crowd  of  adoring  eunuchs  before  him,  had  no  more 
appreciation  than  a  peasant  of  a  Cappadocian  village  of  the 
true  situation  of  the  Empire.  Eudoxia,  beautiful,  haughty, 
spoiled,  revelling  in  the  luxury  of  the  palace,  generous 
to  the  Church  and  the  poor,  floated  soothingly  with  the 
stream.  She  lived  the  languid  life  of  an  Oriental  princess, 
within  the  confines  of  the  palace,  and  was  rarely  seen  even 
by  the  greater  part  of  the  palace  servants.  The  only 
occasion  when  the  populace  saw  her  quit  the  marble  city, 
which  the  palace  of  Constantine  had  become,  was  when, 
in  398,  she  walked  humbly,  with  downcast  eyes,  but 
clothed  in  purple  silk,  with  a  glittering  diadem  on  her 
head,  by  the  side  of  St.  Chrysostom,  as  he  transferred 
certain  relics  of  the  saints.  Chrysostom  would  find  her  in 
a  different  temper  in  a  few  years, 


328  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

The  arrogance  of  Eutropius  at  last  passed  all  bounds, 
and  he  ventured  in  the  year  400  to  threaten  to  expel 
Eudoxia  from  the  palace.  Whether  she  knew  it  or  no, 
the  time  was  ripe  for  the  destruction  of  the  repulsive 
minister.  The  people  groaned  under  his  terrible  exactions, 
his  infamous  legislation,  and  his  bloody  tyranny ;  the 
leaders  of  the  troops  were  prepared  to  sacrifice  him. 
Eudoxia  took  her  baby  girls,  Pulcheria  and  Arcadia,  in  her 
arms,  and  fled  in  tears  to  the  Emperor.  Arcadius,  "  be- 
coming an  Emperor  for  a  moment,"  says  Philostorgius, 
signed  the  sentence  of  his  favourite,  and  the  eunuch  soon 
found  people  and  soldiers  pressing,  like  wolves,  for  his 
destruction.  He  took  refuge  in  a  church,  where  Chrysostom 
protected  him  from  the  fiery  crowd,  but  quitted  it  after 
a  time,  apparently  on  the  oath  of  either  Eudoxia  or  Arcadius 
that  his  life  would  be  spared.  He  was  exiled,  recalled, 
tried,  and — oath  or  no  oath — put  to  death  by  the  public 
executioner. 

Eudoxia's  title  of  nobilissima  ("  most  noble  ")  had  been 
elevated  to  that  of  Augusta  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
400,  and  her  second  daughter  was  born  in  April  of  the  same 
year.^  She  was  now  complete  mistress  of  Arcadius  and 
the  Empire,  and  she  published  her  dignity  with  such  ex- 
travagance that  the  Western  court  sent  an  angry  protest 
that,  in  causing  her  statues  to  be  borne  through  the  provinces, 
she  had  exceeded  the  privileges  of  her  sex.  In  the  follow- 
ing year  she  completed  her  ascendancy  by  giving  birth 
to  a  boy,  Theodosius  H,  and  seemed  to  have  a  prospect 
of  a  long  and  luxurious,  if  useless,  reign.  But  she  had 
meantime  quarrelled  with  Chrysostom,  and  she  was  to 
pass  through  a  period  of  humiliation  to  a  premature  grave. 

In  398  Eutropius  had  transferred  the  austere  and  eloquent 
Chrysostom  from  his  presbytery  in  Antioch  to  the  archi- 
episcopal  palace  at  Constantinople.  The  stern  monk — as 
John  of  the  Golden  Mouth  always  remained  at  heart — was 

*  Hence  Tillemont  and  others,  who  give  these  dates,  must  be  wrong  in 
placing  the  quarrel  with  Eutropius  in  399.  Philostorgius  expressly  says  that 
she  had  two  daughters  in  her  arms  when  she  appealed  to  Arcadius, 


THE   ROMANCE  OF  EUDOXIA   AND  EUDOCIA    329 

horrified  from  the  first  at  the  vice  and  luxury  of  the 
Christians  of  the  Imperial  city,  and  even  of  their  clergy, 
but  he  allowed  two  years  to  elapse  before  he  began  his 
fiery  campaign  against  the  sins  of  the  laity.  ^  He  applied 
himself  first  to  the  reform  of  the  priests  and  the  control  of 
the  monks.  With  that  we  have  no  concern.'  It  is  enough 
to  say  that  the  clergy  bitterly  resented  his  reforms,  and 
were  ready  to  co-operate  with  Eudoxia  in  an  effort  to  get 
rid  of  him.  In  400  he  began  to  attack  the  easy  ways  of  the 
laity  more  sternly,  and  it  is  probable  that  some  feeling  was 
created  between  him  and  the  Empress  over  the  massacre 
of  the  Gothic  Arian  soldiers,  which  took  place  in  that  year. 
Their  commander  Gainas  had  rebelled,  and  Arcadius  had 
virtually  surrendered  to  him.  He  marched  his  troops  to 
the  city,  obtained  the  use  of  a  church  for  them,  and  allowed 
them  to  roam  about,  to  the  irritation  of  the  people ;  until 
at  last  the  people  rose  and  slew  seven  thousand  of  the 
heretics. 

It  seems  that  Eudoxia  was  alienated  from  Chrysostom, 
who  had  resented  the  grant  of  a  church,  from  that  time. 
When,  in  the  following  year,  St.  Porphyry  of  Gaza  came  to 
the  capital  to  obtain  an  Imperial  order  to  destroy  the  pagan 
temples  of  his  town,  Chrysostom  declined  to  introduce  him 
at  court,  and  referred  him  to  the  eunuch  Amantius.  The 
sequel  is  not  without  interest  in  a  study  of  the  Empress. 
The  holy  man  was  presented  to  Eudoxia,  and  promised 
that  she  should  bear  a  boy  if  she  would  secure  the 
destruction  of  paganism  in  Gaza.  She  promised  to  do  so, 
but  Arcadius,  who  seems  to  have  resented  religious  wrangles, 
refused  to  grant  permission.  Then  the  boy  was  born,  and 
Eudoxia  felt  an  obligation  to  secure  Porphyry's  request. 
She  instructed  him  to  draw  up  a  formal  petition,  and  present 
it  to  the  baby-Caesar  as  he  was  carried  from  the  baptismal 
font.     The  noble  who  carried  the  baby  was  then  instructed 

•  See  Professor  Puech's  "Saint  Jean  Chrysostome,"  1891. 

•  The  curious  reader  will  find  Chrysostom's  surprising  strictures  of  the 
clergy  more  than  confirmed  in  the  letters  of  Jerome,  and  his  fierce  denuncia- 
tion of  the  mooks  borue  out  in  Augustine's  treatise  on  them. 


330  THE   EMPRESSES  OF   ROME 

how  he  was  to  behave,  and  a  little  comedy  was  arranged. 
Porphyry  presented  his  paper  to  the  infant  Caesar.  The 
noble  read  a  little  of  it  to  the  baby  in  a  low  voice,  so  that 
Arcadius  should  not  hear,  and  then  bobbed  the  child's  head 
as  a  sign  of  assent.  Arcadius  wearily  overlooked  the  trick, 
eight  beautiful  temples  were  burned  at  Gaza,  and  Eudoxia 
supplied  the  funds  for  building  a  large  church  on  their 
ruins.  Tillemont,  whose  admiring  course  through  the 
fourth  century  is  much  tempered  by  groans,  complains  that 
"  this  kind  of  piety  favours  only  the  demons." 

Chrysostom  then  went  on  to  denounce,  in  unmeasured 
language,  the  vicious  and  luxurious  ways  of  the  wealthy 
women,  especially  widows,  of  his  church.  He  had  diverted 
the  coins  of  the  laity  from  the  army  of  monks,  deprived  the 
clergy  of  their  mistresses,  and  declared  that  the  great 
majority  of  the  bishops  of  his  province  were  hopelessly 
corrupt.  With  the  aid  of  his  rival,  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria, 
they  conspired  against  him,  and  they  reached  the  ear  of 
the  Empress  through  the  courtly  and  comfortable  bishop, 
Severian.  The  other  ear  of  the  Empress  was  now  assailed 
by  the  wealthy  widows  who  smarted  under  the  preacher's 
fierce  lash.  Such  fine  ladies  as  Marsa  and  Castricia  would 
not  be  likely  to  sit  under  the  Socialistic  oratory  of  the 
archbishop,  but  shorthand  {notatio)  was  as  commonly  used 
in  those  days  as  in  our  own,  and  he  could  thus  irritate  the 
eye  of  the  rich  as  well  as  gladden  the  ear  of  the  poor. 
They  brooded  darkly  over  his  impersonal  strictures,  and 
no  doubt  detected  occasional  references  to  the  luxurious 
Empress  in  them.  In  fine.  Archbishop  Theophilus  was 
summoned  from  Alexandria ;  the  bishops  of  the  province 
eagerly  drew  up  and  passed  a  lengthy  indictment  of  their 
superior ;  and,  before  the  orthodox  population  could  gather 
what  was  happening,  their  orator  was  on  the  way  to  exile. 

But  the  triumph  of  Eudoxia  was  as  brief  as  that  of 
Justina.  The  people  rose  in  fury,  and,  after  the  slaughter 
of  seven  thousand  trained  soldiers,  made  a  light  matter  of 
the  monks  and  sailors  of  Theophilus.  When,  in  addition, 
an    earthquake    shook  the    province,   Eudoxia    prudently 


EUDOXIA 


PULCHERIA 

ENt.ARGEO    FROM   COINS    IN    THE   BRITISH    MUSEUM 


THE   ROMANCE   OF   EUDOXIA   AND   EUDOCIA    331 

yielded  to  the  human  pressure,  under  the  decent  pretext 
of  obeying  the  divine  will.  Chrysostom  returned  to  his 
church,  and  the  sight  of  the  gay  fleet  that  set  out  to  meet 
him,  the  flaring  illumination  of  the  shores,  the  frenzied 
rejoicing  of  the  returning  procession,  must  have  filled  the 
palace  on  the  heights  with  bitterness.  Such  a  truce  could 
be  observed  with  cold  discretion  by  neither  party,  and  it 
was  not  long  before  the  struggle  was  renewed. 

In  honour  of  the  birth  of  the  third  daughter  of  the 
Empress,  Marina,  a  silver  statue  of  her  was  erected,  on 
a  column  of  porphyry,  at  the  door  of  the  Senate.  The 
Prefect  of  the  city  commemorated  the  event  with  games  or 
other  rejoicings  in  the  square  before  the  statue,  and  they 
were  naturally  accompanied  by  profane,  if  not  licentious, 
gaiety.  Straight  opposite,  across  the  square,  was  the  door 
of  Chrysostom's  church,  and  the  devout  regarded  this 
demonstration  as  an  outrage  on  religion.  Chrysostom's 
sermons  become  more  explicit.  In  a  later  age  a  sermon 
was  published  under  his  name,  in  which  the  people — or  the 
readers — were  reminded  of  the  infamous  Herodias  clamour- 
ing for  the  head  of  John.  The  sermon  is  generally  regarded 
as  spurious,  but  we  have  the  weighty  authority  of  Socrates 
for  the  fact  that  the  extempore  preacher  did  utter  the  fatal 
name  of  Herodias.  The  conflict  ended  with  the  exile  of  the 
archbishop  (June  404),  but  on  the  following  night  his 
church  was  found  to  be  in  flames,  and  the  fire  spread  to, 
and  almost  destroyed,  the  Senate-house,  a  building  adorned 
with  the  most  exquisite  marbles  and  works  of  art. 

The  condition  of  Constantinople,  the  anxiety  of  Eudoxia, 
during  the  following  months,  may  be  imagined.  It  is 
enough  to  know  that  Eudoxia  met  a  painful  death,  through 
miscarriage,  in  the  month  of  September  of  the  same  year 
(404).  I  will  not  reproduce  the  horrible  details  that  a  more 
orthodox  age  discovered  in  connexion  with  her  death.'     If 

'  Gibbon  makes  her  survive  Chrysostom,  and  die  in  408.  But  Tillemont 
has  pointed  out  that  the  •'  Life  of  Chrysostom  "  by  George  of  Alexandria,  on 
which  he  seems  to  have  relied,  forges  letters,  and  is  quite  unreliable.  The 
earlier  writers  put  the  death  of  Eudoxia  in  404. 


332  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

Chrysostom  spoke  from  "  a  bitter  disillusion,"  as  Dr.  Puech 
holds,  Eudoxia  had  not  less  cause  to  be  embittered.  Even 
her  religious  zeal  had  led  her  into  the  most  painful 
experiences.  For  the  State,  in  which  she  had  high  power, 
she  did  nothing.  The  vultures  gathered  on  the  hills,  while 
the  court  absorbed  its  little  soul  in  voluptuous  pomp,  and 
the  people  fought  each  other  over  creeds.  We  may  dissent 
from  the  hard  verdict  of  Gibbon,  that  Eudoxia  indulged  her 
passions  while  the  Empire  decayed,  and  we  must  regard  as 
too  frivolous  for  consideration  the  suspicion  of  unchastity 
which  he  reproduces ;  but  we  must  grant  that,  where 
Eudoxia's  action  was  not  selfish,  it  was  generally  useless, 
and  frequently  mischievous. 

We  have  carried  the  slender  story  of  the  Empresses  in 
the  West  as  far  as  the  year  410,  and  we  shall  find  no  other 
Empress  there  until  421.  We  may,  therefore,  continue  the 
record  of  the  East,  and  consider  the  romantic  story  of 
Eudocia,  before  we  proceed  to  the  last  scene  in  the  Empire 
of  the  West. 

After  an  ignoble  reign  of  thirteen  years  the  elder  son  of 
Theodosius  died  in  his  bed  in  the  year  408.  His  only  son, 
Theodosius  II,  was  clothed  with  the  purple,  in  his  sixth 
year,  and  a  prudent  and  experienced  minister  controlled 
the  State  for  the  next  seven  years.  In  415  Pulcheria,  the 
elder  sister  of  Theodosius,  was  named  Augusta,  and 
gradually  assumed  the  guardianship  of  her  brother  and 
the  control  of  the  State.  She  was  as  yet  only  in  her 
sixteenth  year,  and  Theodosius  was  only  two  years  younger, 
but  her  cold,  decisive  temper  compensated  in  some  measure 
for  the  strength  which  Theodosius  wholly  lacked,  and  she 
held  the  reins  of  the  Empire.  Deeply  religious,  she  took 
herself,  and  induced  her  younger  sisters  to  take,  a  vow  of 
chastity,  which  was  written  in  gold  and  diamonds  on  the 
wall  of  the  public  church.  The  palace  offered  the  singular 
spectacle  of  a  nunnery  within  a  luxurious  court.  Only 
pious  eunuchs  and  women  were  allowed  to  approach  the 
Imperial  virgins,  in  whose  sober  apartments  no  music  was 
ever  heard  save  that  of  the  psalm  and  sacred  song ;  while 


THE    ROMANCE   OF   EUDOXIA    AND    EUDOCIA    333 

the  weakly  youth  was  educated  in  the  pomp  that  befits  a 
king,  as  well  as  the  propriety  that  adorns  a  Christian.  He 
learned  both  lessons  with  success ;  but  we  cannot  avoid  a 
suspicion  that  less  earnest  and  assiduous  efforts  were  made 
to  fit  him  for  the  task  of  taking  in  his  own  hands  the  levers 
of  the  heavy  machinery  of  the  State.  It  is  proper  to  add, 
however,  that,  partly  from  circumstances,  partly  from  the 
prudence  and  care  of  Pulcheria,  that  machinery  ran  with 
unaccustomed  ease,  and  the  Empire  enjoyed  a  span  of  peace 
and  prosperity. 

At  length  the  anxious  question  of  the  Imperial  marriage 
arose,  and  the  virginal  Pulcheria  confronted  it  with  her 
usual  coolness  and  decision.  The  task  was  simplified,  in 
a  sense,  by  Theodosius.  He  declared  that  he  would  marry 
only  a  young  lady  of  exceptional  bodily  charm,  and  would 
pay  no  attention  to  wealth  or  dignity.  It  may  have 
occurred  to  Pulcheria  that  an  Empress  thus  elevated  would 
be  less  likely  to  dispute  her  power  than  some  woman 
who  had  been  born  into  the  world  of  large  action.  She 
began  her  search,  with  the  aid  of  Paulinus,  a  youth  who 
had  been  educated  with  Theodosius  and  was  his  intimate 
friend. 

One  day,  at  this  period,  a  young  Athenian  girl  was 
brought  into  her  presence  with  a  petition.  She  was  of 
the  fairest  Athenian  type ;  a  supple  and  graceful  young 
woman,  with  skin  of  a  snowy  complexion,  large  intelli- 
gent eyes,  and  a  beautiful  head  of  golden  hair.  Further, 
she  pleaded  her  cause,  in  perfect  Greek,  with  a  surpris- 
ing restraint,  eloquence,  and  art.  She  was  Athenais,  the 
daughter  of  an  Athenian  teacher.  He  had  cultivated  her 
mind  and  her  beauty  with  all  the  resources  of  his  art, 
and  had,  at  his  death,  left  her  only  a  hundred  pieces  of 
gold,  on  the  pretext  that  she  was  wealthy  enough  in  her 
advantages.  She  begged  her  brothers  to  share  the  in- 
heritance more  justly,  but  they  refused.  She  had  there- 
fore come  with  a  relative  to  the  house  of  an  aunt  at 
Constantinople,  and  asked  for  a  just  distribution  of  her 
father's  money.     Pulcheria's  interest  was,  not  in  the  case. 


334  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

but  in  the  girl.  She  took  the  aunt  aside,  and  prudently 
inquired  if  the  girl  was  a  maid  and  a  Christian.  Athenais 
was  declared  to  be  a  virgin,  though  a  pagan ;  but  the 
defect  was  one  that  could  easily  be  removed. 

Pulcheria  joyfully  told  her  brother  that  she  had  found 
the  beauty  he  desired,  and  described  her.  They  arranged 
a  second  visit,  during  which  Theodosius  and  Paulinus 
should  inspect  the  maiden  from  behind  a  curtain.  In  a 
short  time  Athenais  had  changed  her  name  into  iElia 
Eudocia,  changed  her  religion  into  that  of  Christ,  and 
changed  her  condition  into  that  of  wife  of  the  Emperor. 
She  was  married  on  June  7th,  421,  in,  it  is  believed,  the 
twentieth  year  of  her  age.  There  was  consternation  in 
the  home  she  had  quitted  at  Athens,  and  her  brothers  hid 
themselves  in  the  provinces.  Eudocia  had  them  sought 
and  conducted  to  Constantinople.  There  they  learned  to 
their  surprise  that  she  thought  herself  indebted  to  their 
conduct  for  her  fortune,  and  they  were  richly  rewarded. 

From  these  pleasant  girlish  traits  we  pass  to  the  in- 
evitable struggle  with  Pulcheria.  Theodosius  remained 
an  Imperial  nonentity.  He  could  hunt,  paint,  and  carve, 
but  public  business  so  bored  him  that  he  signed  docu- 
ments without  reading  them.  One  day  Pulcheria  put  a 
parchment  before  him,  and  he,  as  usual,  blindly  appended 
his  name.  Shortly  afterwards  he  summoned  Eudocia, 
and  was  told  that  she  was  now  the  slave  of  Pulcheria, 
and  awaited  her  orders.  The  document  he  had  signed 
was  a  deed  of  sale  of  his  wife,  but  it  does  not  appear 
that  the  little  stratagem  made  much  impression  on  him. 
Pulcheria  still  held  the  reins.  Eudocia  had  her  first 
child  at  the  end  of  422,  and  was,  in  the  following  January, 
entitled  Augusta.  The  court  had  a  visit,  too,  from  the 
Empress  of  the  West,  Galla  Placidia,  and  her  daughter,  and 
large  matters  were  discussed.  In  433  we  may,  perhaps, 
trace  some  influence  of  Eudocia  on  legislation.  An  edict 
imposing  the  death-sentence  on  the  remaining  pagans 
may  be  confidently  ascribed  to  Pulcheria;  but  an  edict 
reforming  and   enlarging  the  higher  schools  of  Constan- 


THE   ROMANCE   OF   EUDOXIA   AND    EUDOCIA    335 

tinople  seems  rather  to  remind  us  of  the  Athenian 
scholar's  daughter.  She  occupied  much  of  her  leisure 
in  writing  historical  and  religious  poetry,  and  the  little 
that  survives  of  it  has  been  recently  edited  by  Ludwich. 
It  is  correct  in  form  and  devoid  of  inspiration. 

The  years  passed  tranquilly  until  437,  when  we  begin 
to  suspect  that  there  is  friction  with  Pulcheria.  Few 
things  had  happened,  beyond  the  echo  of  the  stormy 
movements  of  the  West,  and  the  disquieting  advance  of 
the  Huns,  to  disturb  the  life  of  the  court.  One  year  (434) 
had,  indeed,  brought  a  strange  thrill  into  the  Imperial 
nunnery.  A  princess  of  the  Western  Empire,  Honoria, 
came  to  Constantinople,  enceinte  by  her  own  steward. 
But  the  hard  lot  of  Honoria,  and  the  romantic  devices 
by  which  she  sought  to  enliven  it,  will  occupy  us  later. 
Pulcheria  promptly  enclosed  the  fiery  young  princess 
in  a  convent,  and  the  scandal  would  be  mentioned  only 
in  whispers.  Three  years  later  (437)  the  Western 
Emperor,  Valentinian  III,  came  to  Constantinople,  and 
led  away  Eudocia's  beautiful  daughter,  Licinia  Eudoxia, 
to  share  his  trembling  throne.  The  next  detail  is  that,  in 
439,  Eudocia  made  a  lengthy  pilgrimage  to  Palestine,  and 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  her  absence  from  the  palace 
for  a  year — which  is  unconvincingly  connected  by  Gibbon 
with  the  marriage  of  her  daughter,  two  years  before — was 
due,  in  part  or  entirely,  to  some  quarrel  with  either 
Theodosius  or  Pulcheria,  most  probably  the  latter. 

At  Antioch,  on  the  journey,  Eudocia  enjoyed  the 
prestige  of  her  solitary  and  independent  dignity.  From  a 
golden  throne  she  delivered  a  studied  oration  to  the 
Senate,  and  the  tumultuous  applause  and  voting  of  statues 
to  her  must  have  greatly  increased  her  self-consciousness. 
The  shower  of  gold  she  rained  upon  the  churches  and 
monasteries  of  Palestine,  and  indeed  all  along  her  route, 
elicited  a  no  less  stimulating  demonstration.  She  returned 
to  Constantinople,  apparently  about  the  end  of  439,  with 
a  larger  sense  of  her  importance,  and  with  such  priceless 
relics  as  the  arm  of  St.  Stephen  and  the  authentic  picture 


336  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

of  Mary  which  Luke  the  Physician  had  painted.  It  is  only 
at  a  much  later  date  that  Greek  writers  add  to  her  luggage 
a  phial  of  the  Virgin's  milk,  some  underclothing  of  the 
infant  Christ,  and  similar  treasures. 

The  pilgrimage  was  the  turning-point  in  the  career  of 
Eudocia.  So  far  her  life  had  been  one  of  splendid  and 
powerless  prestige ;  it  now  rapidly  darkens  with  intrigue, 
is  overshadowed  by  tragedy  and  suspicion,  and  soon  ends 
in  a  virtual  exile.  We  are  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the 
writers  of  the  time  to  expect  that  they  will  throw  very 
little  light  on  this  fresh  Imperial  tragedy,  but,  using  the 
later  and  less  weighty  Greek  writers  with  discretion,  we 
may  obtain  a  fairly  confident  idea  of  its  main  features. 
Two  facts  are  related  by  writers  of  the  time,  and  are 
beyond  question.  In  the  year  following  Eudocia's  return, 
her  friend,  and  the  intimate  friend  of  the  Emperor,  the 
charming  and  accomplished  Paulinus,  was  exiled  and  put 
to  death  without  public  trial.  The  second  fact  is  that, 
a  few  years  later,  Eudocia  left  the  palace  for  ever,  to 
spend  the  remainder  of  her  life  at  Jerusalem. 

The  later  Byzantine  writers  give  a  rounded  story  of 
these  events,  and,  on  the  whole,  one  is  disposed  to  think 
that  in  this  case  they  are  revealing  the  suppressed  truth. 
Theophanes  (in  his  "  Chronographia  ")  says  that  a  eunuch 
named  Chrysaphius  rose  into  favour,  and  urged  Eudocia 
to  secure  the  dismissal  of  Pulcheria.  They  persuade 
Theodosius  that,  since  Pulcheria  has  taken  a  vow  of 
virginity,  her  proper  place  is  among  the  deaconesses  of 
the  Church,  and  Archbishop  Flavian  is  instructed  to  take 
her  away.  Flavian,  however,  prefers  to  have  her  in  the 
palace,  and  he  directs  her  simply  to  live  apart  for  a  time 
and  wait.  Then,  in  440,  occurs  the  execution — one  may 
almost  say  murder — of  Paulinus.  These  later  Greek 
writers  all  give  a  romantic  story  in  connexion  with  it.  As 
Theodosius  and  Eudocia  go  to  church  on  Epiphany 
morning,  a  peasant  presents  the  Emperor  with  a  remarkably 
large  apple.  He  gives  it  to  Eudocia,  who  privately  sends 
it  to  Paulinus.     Unluckily,  Paulinus  in  turn  presents  it  to 


THE   ROMANCE   OF  EUDOXIA  AND  EUDOCIA    337 

the  Emperor,  who  sternly  asks  Eudocia  what  she  has  done 
with  it.  She  declares,  and  repeats  with  a  most  solemn  oath, 
that  she  has  eaten  it.  Paulinus  is  at  once  sent  away, 
and  decapitated.  A  much  nearer  and  more  weighty 
authority,  John  Malala,  confirms,  in  substance,  this  story 
of  the  apple,  and  says  that  Paulinus  was  suspected  of 
intimacy  with  the  Empress.  There  is  no  serious  reason 
to  doubt  it,  nor  is  any  other  reason  suggested  for  the 
murder  of  Paulinus ;  but  whether  Eudocia  was  guilty,  or 
the  suspicion  was  inspired  by  the  servants  of  Pulcheria, 
we  are  unable  to  determine. 

The  eunuch  then,  says  Theophanes,  presses  Eudocia  to 
attack  Flavian  and  Pulcheria.  He  reminds  her  of  "  all  the 
bitter  things  she  had  endured  from  Pulcheria,"  and  covers 
the  human  motive  with  a  pretence  of  religious  zeal.  We 
know,  at  least,  that  Eudocia  embraced  the  Eutychian 
heresy,  which  Chrysaphius  had  adopted,  and  that  a  Church- 
council  was  summoned  in  441  that  put  an  end  to  Flavian. 
The  intrigue,  however,  runs  on  in  obscurity  until  Eudocia 
suddenly  asks  permission  to  retire  to  Jerusalem.  Theo- 
dosius  could  not  divorce  her,  but  we  can  easily  believe 
that,  as  these  writers  say,  he  treated  her  with  such  severity, 
repeatedly  reminding  her  of  Paulinus,  that  she  was  driven 
into  exile.  Pulcheria  returned  to  the  palace,  and  resumed 
her  control  of  the  Emperor  and  the  Empire. 

Gibbon  scouts  these  "  Greek  fictions,"  but,  not  only 
has  he  not  taken  sufficient  account  of  John  Malala,  whose 
authority  he  recognizes,  but  a  detail  he  adds  from  the 
still  more  authoritative  Chronicle  of  Marcellinus  (which  is 
almost  contemporary)  gives  a  very  serious  confirmation. 
In  the  suite  of  Eudocia,  when  she  set  out  for  Palestine, 
were  a  priest  named  Severus  and  a  deacon  named  John, 
favourites  of  hers.  They  had  not  long  left  Constantinople 
when  an  officer  named  Saturninus,  of  the  faction  opposed 
to  Eudocia,  came  upon  them  with  an  order  to  put  Severus 
and  John  to  death.  It  appears  that  they  too  were  executed 
for  supposed  intimacy  with  the  Empress.  Eudocia  lost  her 
self-control  at  this  brutal  outrage,  and  bade  her  servants 
22 


338  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

make  an  end  of  Satuminus.  When  Theodosius  heard,  he 
stripped  Eudocia  of  her  Imperial  prerogatives,  and  left  her 
in  the  position  of  an  ordinary  citizen.  These  authentic 
statements  of  Marcellinus  strongly  confirm  the  story,  and 
it  is  clear  that  the  Byzantine  court  was  stained  by  a  sordid 
quarrel  and  several  brutal  murders. 

The  romance  of  Eudocia's  career  was  not  yet  over. 
Marcellinus  sends  her  to  Jerusalem  in  444:  the  later 
writers  in  442.  However  that  may  be,  in  the  year  445 
we  find  her  again  embarking  on  an  unhappy  adventure. 
The  monks  of  Palestine  were  infected  with  the  Eutychian 
heresy,  and  they  welcomed  so  powerful  a  patroness. 
With  the  aid  of  her  servants  they  ousted  the  orthodox 
bishop  of  Jerusalem,  and  a  vigorous  monk  was  put  in 
his  place.  The  monk-bishop,  with  his  militant  army  of 
ten  thousand  monkish  followers,  held  Jerusalem  for  twenty 
months,  in  spite  of  the  Imperial  troops,  drove  all  the 
orthodox  bishops  out  of  Palestine,  and  slew  and  cast  to 
the  dogs  a  number  of  their  followers.  In  this  quaint 
company  the  delicate  Greek  Empress  continued  to  build 
churches  and  monasteries  for  three  years,  but  when  she 
hears  at  length  of  the  misfortunes  of  her  daughter,  which 
the  Bishop  of  Rome,  as  well  as  the  courts  of  Ravenna 
and  Constantinople,  ascribe  to  her  heresy,  she  sends  to 
consult  the  famous  hermit  of  the  pillar,  Simeon  Stylites. 
Simeon  recommends  her  to  confer  with  a  certain  saintly 
monk  of  the  desert.  The  monk  will  neither  leave  his 
desert  for  her,  nor  permit  a  woman  to  enter  it.  She 
therefore  builds  a  tower  on  the  hill  some  miles  away, 
and  in  that  safe  and  public  elevation  the  monk  enlightens 
her  out  of  her  heresy. 

Eudocia  brought  her  adventurous  career  to  a  close  in 
460,  protesting  with  her  last  breath  that  she  was  innocent 
of  the  charge  of  unchastity.  Pulcheria  continued  to  rule 
the  Eastern  Empire  in  the  name  of  Theodosius  until  he 
died,  in  the  year  450,  inglorious  and  unhonoured.  It  was 
now  seen  that  the  prosperity  of  the  Empire  in  her  earlier 
years  was  a  hollow  truce  of  circumstances.     When  the 


THE   ROMANCE  OF  EUDOXIA   AND  EUDOCIA    339 

fierce  and  rapacious  Huns  approached  it,  in  446  and  447, 
the  Eastern  Empire  tremblingly  purchased  peace  by  the 
most  ignominious  concessions.  When  Theodosius  died, 
she  assumed  sole  control  of  the  Empire,  and  the  head 
of  the  eunuch  Chrysaphius  was  at  once  removed  from 
his  shoulders.  But  the  pressure  of  her  people  forced 
her  to  marry,  and  an  aged  Senator,  Marcian,  engaged 
to  share  her  throne  without  sharing  her  virginal  bed. 
To  his  more  vigorous  hands  the  affairs  of  State  now 
passed,  and  Pulcheria  maintained  her  virtue  and  piety 
to  the  end.  But  we  must  now  leave  the  Oriental  pomp, 
the  emasculated  frame,  and  the  splendid  piety  of  the 
Byzantine  court,  to  conclude  our  story  in  the  West. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE  LAST  EMPRESSES  OF  THE  WEST 

THE  course  of  our  inquiry  has  led  us  through  five 
'  centuries  of  change.  We  have  passed  from  the 
sober  and  virile  integrity  of  the  first  Imperial  pair, 
the  golden  age  of  Roman  life  and  letters,  to  the  successive 
depths  of  the  Caesars.  We  have  then  seen  the  decrepit 
and  corrupt  city  refreshed  with  an  inflow  of  sound  pro- 
vincial blood,  the  enervated  patrician  families  replaced  on 
the  throne  by  vigorous  soldiers,  and  a  new  period  of 
sobriety  and  prosperity  open  under  the  Stoics,  to  sink 
again  under  the  burden  of  vice  and  luxury.  Diocletian 
restores  its  strength,  and  then  a  singular  and  momentous 
change  comes  over  the  face  of  the  Empire.  The  white 
homes  of  the  gods  perish  or  decay,  the  gay  processions 
no  longer  enliven  the  streets,  the  cross  of  Christ  heads 
the  legions  and  towers  austerely  above  the  public  buildings 
and  monuments.  The  ante-chambers  of  the  Emperors  are 
filled  with  Christian  bishops,  and  the  rulers  of  the  world 
bend  meekly  before  the  ragged  figures  of  monks  and 
tremble  at  the  threats  of  lowly  priests. 

We  return  to  the  Western  world  to  find  another  and 
a  greater  change.  Rome  has  fallen,  the  frontiers  are 
obliterated,  the  provinces,  even  to  Africa,  are  cowering 
under  the  armies  of  the  barbarians.  Poverty,  misery, 
and  violence  are  scattered  over  the  Empire,  as  if  the 
departing  gods  had  sown  its  fields  with  salt  or  with 
dragons'  teeth  as  they  retired  to  Olympus.     Civilization, 

law,  culture,  art,  seem  to  be  doomed,  and  the  end  of  the 

340 


/ 


THE   LAST   EMPRESSES   OF  THE   WEST        341 

world  is  confidently  expected.  But  amid  the  crumbling 
frame  of  the  vast  Empire  a  few  shades  of  Emperors  and 
Empresses  linger  for  a  generation,  and  we  may  glance 
briefly  at  their  sobered  features  and  adventurous  experi- 
ences. 

The  chief  figure  of  interest  is  iElia  Galla  Placidia,  the 
sister  of  Honorius,  whom  we  found  visiting  Constantinople 
in  423.  Her  adventures  began  when  the  Goths  invested 
Rome  in  408.  She  is  then  mentioned  as  concurring  with 
the  Senate  in  the  pitiful  execution  of  her  cousin,  the 
widow  of  Stilicho.  Placidia  was  then  in  her  eighteenth 
year.  Bearing  a  heavy  ransom,  the  Gothic  army  went 
away  to  harass  her  useless  and  trembling  brother  at 
Ravenna,  and  Placidia  thought  fit  to  remain  at  Rome. 
It  still  contained  wealth  enough  to  capitulate  to  barbarians 
on  fair  terms.  But  the  Goths  returned  in  410.  Rome 
was  awakened  in  the  dead  of  night  by  the  blare  of  their 
trumpets,  and  looked  out  to  find  palaces  in  flames,  the 
streets  filled  with  the  terrible  Goths,  and  the  work  of 
looting  already  begun.  After  six  days  of  pillage  they 
retreated  northward,  taking  Placidia  with  them.  We 
cannot  follow  her  closely  in  that  extraordinary  march. 
She  was  treated  as  a  princess,  however,  and  two  years 
later  was  sought  in  marriage  by  the  new  king  of  the 
Goths,  Ataulph.  Ataulph  was  a  barbarian  only  in  name ; 
a  large,  handsome  man,  princely,  intelligent,  and  amiable. 
He  aspired  to  be  a  Roman  Emperor.  Honorius  weakly 
resented  the  proposal,  and  demanded  that  he  should 
prove  the  friendship  he  offered  to  Rome  by  returning 
Placidia.  For  two  years  she  had  wandered  over  Italy  in 
the  Gothic  army. 

It  appears  that  Placidia  was  attracted  to  the  graceful 
and  courtly  Goth,  and  they  were  married  at  Narbonne — 
the  Goths  having  now  returned  to  Gaul — in  414.  When 
she  reflected  on  the  splendour  of  the  wedding  gifts,  she 
may  have  thought  that  even  an  alliance  with  a  Roman 
prince  could  not  be  more  magnificent.  Fifty  beautiful 
youths,  clothed  in  silk,  brought  to  her  one  hundred  dishes 


342  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

laden  with  the  gold  and  jewels  which  the  Goths  had 
brought  from  Rome.  But  Ataulph  was  assassinated  in 
the  following  year,  and  Placidia  sank  again  to  the 
position  of  captive.  She  had  to  walk  twelve  miles  on 
foot,  amid  a  crowd  of  captives,  before  the  victorious 
barbarian  who  had  slain  her  husband.  Within  another 
year  her  persecutor  was  slain,  and  his  more  humane 
successor  restored  her— or  sold  her — to  the  court  at 
Ravenna. 

The  Roman  commander  Constantius,  into  whose  hands 
she  was  committed,  at  once  claimed  her  in  marriage. 
Honorius  had  promised  that  he  should  marry  her  if,  by 
whatever  means,  he  recovered  her  from  the  Goths.  Placidia 
shrank  resentfully  from  his  embraces,  and  found  his  coarse, 
large,  surly  person  a  poor  exchange  for  her  handsome 
Gothic  husband.  The  wedding  took  place,  however,  in 
417,  and  Placidia  settled  down  to  the  prosy  duties  of  a 
matron,  giving  birth,  in  succession,  to  the  princess  Honoria 
and  the  future  Emperor  Valentinian  III.  In  421  her 
husband  compelled  the  weak-minded  Honorius  to  clothe 
him  with  the  purple.  Placidia  received  the  title  of  Augusta, 
and  a  better  prospect  seemed  to  open  before  her.  But 
Constantius  died  within  a  few  months,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  she  fell  into  a  violent  quarrel  with  Honorius. 
The  cause  of  the  quarrel  is,  as  usual,  obscure.  Some 
of  the  later  writers  suggest  that  Honorius  became 
enamoured  of  his  sister  in  her  young  widowhood.  We 
know  only  that  the  palace  at  Ravenna  was  filled  with 
bitter  recriminations,  its  courts  were  stained  with  the  blood 
of  their  followers,  and  Placidia  fled  to  Constantinople  with 
her  children. 

Honorius  died  a  few  months  later  (August  423),  and 
Placidia,  confirmed  in  her  title  of  Augusta  by  Theodosius, 
was  sent  in  the  following  year  to  claim  the  throne  for 
Theodosius,  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  force.  A  secretary 
had  usurped  the  vacant  throne  during  her  absence.  It 
was  the  spring  of  425  before  they  set  out  from  Thessalonica 
for   Italy;  Placidia  was  with  the  cavalry,  which  reached 


PI.ACIDIA 


ENPHEMIA 

ENLAKUED    KKU.M    COINS    IN    THE    HKH  ISH    MISEL'M 


THE   LAST   EMPRESSES   OF   THE   WEST        343 

and  took  Aquileia  with  great  speed.  There,  after  a  short 
time,  she  received  the  captive  usurper.  His  hand  was 
cut  off  in  the  public  Circus,  he  was  placed  on  an  ass  and 
conducted  round  the  town,  amid  the  jeers  of  the  crowd 
and  the  actors  of  the  Circus,  and  was  finally  beheaded. 
They  then  proceeded  to  Ravenna.  Valentinian,  a  boy  of 
six  years,  was  created  Emperor  of  the  West,  and  Placidia 
settled  down  to  a  long  period  of  government  in  his  name. 

As  the  legislation  which  followed,  bearing  the  name 
of  Valentinian  but  breathing  the  spirit  of  Placidia,  was 
mainly  of  an  ecclesiastical  character,  we  will  not  linger 
over  it.  She  fell  ruthlessly  upon  Pagans,  Jews,  Pelagians, 
Manichaeans,  and  every  other  class  who  were  obnoxious 
to  her  clergy.  As  in  the  case  of  most  of  the  later 
Empresses,  her  piety  so  impressed  the  writers  of  the 
time  that  her  personality  is  almost  entirely  hidden  from  us. 
Apart  from  her  decrees  of  religious  coercion,  we  know 
her  only  as  experiencing,  not  doing,  things.  Procopius, 
not  a  biased  historian,  severely  complains  that  she  reared 
her  son  in  a  luxurious  softness  that  led  inevitably  to  his 
later  vices  and  his  violent  death ;  and  it  is  frequently 
suspected  that  she  had  no  eagerness  to  see  him  fitly 
educated  in  the  duties  of  a  prince.  Cassiodorus  pronounces 
that  she  conducted  the  affairs  of  the  State  with  wavering 
and  incompetent  counsel,  just  at  the  time  when  Rome 
most  urgently  needed  a  firm  and  enlightened  ruler. 
Tillemont,  after  praising  her  piety,  admits  sadly  that  she 
brought  great  evils  upon  her  afflicted  Empire. 

Though  Rome  had  been  looted  by  the  Goths  at  their 
leisure,  and  barbaric  armies  commanded  every  province, 
the  cause  of  the  Empire  was  not  yet  lost.  A  judicious 
policy  might  have  utilized  the  mutual  hatreds  of  the 
various  tribes,  and  have  put  the  able  commanders,  who 
were  still  in  the  service  of  Rome,  at  the  head  of  formid- 
able armies.  But  the  weakness  and  obtuseness  of  Placidia 
led,  on  the  contrary,  to  the  loss  of  her  finest  general, 
her  last  free  province,  and  a  large  proportion  of  her 
troops.      Listening    injudiciously  to    the    malignant    per- 


344  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

suasions  of  one  general,  iEtius,  she  commanded  the  other, 
Count  Boniface,  to  relinquish  his  post  in  Africa,  under 
the  impression  that  he  meditated  treachery.  iEtius  at 
the  same  time  warned  Boniface  that  the  recall  was  due 
to  suspicion,  and  the  gallant  officer  was  driven  into  re- 
bellion. He  invited  the  Vandals  to  Africa,  and  soon 
twenty  thousand  of  the  tall,  fair-haired  northerners,  with 
a  vast  crowd  of  dependents  and  followers,  spread  over 
the  province.  Placidia  discovered  too  late  the  deceit  o 
iEtius.  She  was  induced  to  send  a  friendly  ambassador 
to  Boniface,  and  the  fraud  was  at  once  detected.  But 
the  Vandals  could  not  be  dislodged.  Boniface  was  slain 
(432)  in  his  struggle  with  them,  iEtius  was  driven  to  the 
camp  of  the  Huns,  and  Africa,  the  granary  of  Rome,  was 
irretrievably  lost. 

The  next  blow  that  threatened  the  distracted  Empire 
was  an  invasion  of  the  Huns.  Placidia  cannot  be  held 
responsible  for  the  subsequent  calamities,  for  iEtius, 
strong  in  his  alliance  with  the  Huns,  had  forced  his  way 
back  into  power,  and  was  the  real  governor  of  the  Empire. 
But  the  formidable  task  he  undertook  was  made  more 
difficult  by  a  romantic  and  unhappy  occurrence  within 
Placidia's  domestic  circle.  We  have  already  spoken  ol 
her  daughter  Honoria,  who  came  in  disgrace  to  Constan- 
tinople in  434.  The  great  distinction  of  the  Constantino- 
politan  court,  the  possession  of  three  royal  virgins,  seems 
to  have  excited  the  pious  jealousy  of  Placidia,  and  she 
apparently  designed  that  her  court  should  not  lack  its 
Vestal  Virgin.  We  are  not  told  that  any  vow  was  imposed 
on  the  young  Honoria,  but  she  was  reared  with  the 
discipline  of  a  conventual  novice,  and  given  to  under- 
stand that  the  exalted  state  of  virginity  was  assigned  to 
her.  In  433  the  title  of  Augusta  was  bestowed  on  her, 
in  some  compensation  of  her  sacrifice.  But  the  daughter 
of  Constantius  had  thicker  blood  in  her  veins  than  the 
daughters  of  Arcadius,  and  the  claustral  regime — the 
restriction  of  attendance  to  eunuchs  and  women— does 
not  seem  to  have   been  rigorously  enforced  at  Ravenna, 


THE   LAST   EMPRESSES   OF  THE   WEST        345 

In  434  the  seventeen-year-old  princess  was  discovered 
to  be  in  a  painful  condition,  and  was  dispatched  to 
Constantinople,  and  incarcerated  in  a  nunnery  by  the 
indignant  Pulcheria. 

But  the  young  girl  had  a  spirit  beyond  her  years. 
She  had  heard  of  the  formidable  nation  of  the  Huns, 
which  awaited,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Danube  and 
the  Volga,  its  turn  to  fill  the  Imperial  stage  ;  she  had 
heard  that  the  young  and  powerful  Attila  had  recently 
acceded  to  the  throne  of  that  nation.  In  some  way  &he 
secured  a  messenger  who  took  from  her  a  letter  and  a 
ring  to  Attila,  offering  him  her  heart  and  her  dowry  if 
he  would  release  her.  The  girlish  freak  was  destined  to 
have  terrible  consequences  for  the  Empire.  The  lady 
herself  we  may  dismiss  in  a  word.  She  seems  to  have 
been  kept  in  close  confinement  in  the  East  until  about 
450,  sending  fruitless  messages,  from  time  to  time,  to  her 
romantic  lover.  Attila  had  sufficient  occupation  during 
those  fifteen  years,  and  was  content  to  put  her  name  on 
the  lengthy  list  of  his  wives.  When,  in  450,  he  formally 
demanded  her  person,  he  was  assured  that  she  was 
married.  It  is  not  impossible  that  she  was  released  on 
condition  that  she  accepted  a  husband  chosen  for  her. 
But  her  end  is  obscure,  and  one  is  disposed  to  doubt  if 
she  would  ever  have  resumed  her  liberty  without  joining 
the  victorious  Hun. 

Placidia  died  in  the  year  450,  leaving  the  astute  iEtius 
to  avert  the  oncoming  disaster  by  an  alliance  with  the 
Ostrogoths  against  the  Huns.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century 
she  had  had  supreme  power  over  the  Western  Empire. 
It  is,  perhaps,  only  an  indication  of  mediocrity  on  her 
part  that  she  could  not  avert  the  blows  that  fell  upon  it 
during  that  period,  but  it  was  a  calamity  for  Rome. 
Her  memory  survived,  in  a  singular  way,  for  more  than 
a  thousand  years.  The  pagan  habit  of  cremating  the 
bodies  of  Emperors  and  Empresses  had  been  replaced  by 
the  Egyptian  process  of  embalming,  and  Placidia  had 
built  a  chapel  at  Ravenna  for  the  reception  of  her  body. 


346  THE   EMPRESSES   OF   ROME 

There  it  sat,  in  a  chair  of  cedar-wood,  until  the  year 
1577,  when  some  children,  thrusting  a  lighted  taper  into  the 
tomb  to  see  it  better,  set  it  aflame  and  reduced  it  to  ashes. 

Meantime,  another  Empress  of  the  West  had  appeared. 
In  437  Valentinian  had  married  Licinia  Eudoxia,  the 
fourteen-year-old  daughter  of  Eudocia,  at  Constantinople, 
and  brought  her  to  Italy.  He  had  parted  with  a  large 
slice  of  his  Empire  to  Pulcheria  and  Theodosius  for  the 
honour,  and  is  said  to  have  held  it  lightly.  The  sequel 
will  dispose  us  to  believe  his  irregularities.  A  youth  of 
eighteen  at  the  time,  frivolous,  luxurious,  and  light-headed, 
he  was  content  to  enjoy  the  palace,  and  leave  his  mother, 
and  then  iEtius,  to  discharge  his  duties.  Eudoxia  could 
but  idly  follow  the  momentous  movements  of  the  nations, 
and  appreciate  the  defeat  of  the  Huns  in  the  terrible  battle 
of  Chalons  in  451  ;  or  shudder  when,  in  the  following  year, 
Attila  marched  to  the  gates  of  Rome,  demanding  half  the 
Empire  as  the  dowry  of  his  distant  bride,  Honoria ;  or 
when,  in  453,  the  profligate  Valentinian  plunged  his  sword 
in  the  breast  of  his  great  minister  iEtius.  A  grave  personal 
tragedy  was  upon  her. 

The  court  resided  generally  at  Rome,  where  Valentinian 
enjoyed  the  larger  and  faster  amusements  of  a  metropolis. 
Here,  in  the  year  455,  he  was  stabbed  by  his  soldiers,  and 
a  romantic  story  is  told  in  connexion  with  his  death.  The 
story  is  rejected  by  a  recent  historical  writer,  Mr.  Hodgkin 
("  Italy  and  her  Invaders  "),  but  Professor  Bury  has  shown 
that  it  is  probably  true  in  substance.  The  full  story,  to 
which  fictitious  details  may  have  been  added  before  it 
reached  Procopius,  is  that  Valentinian,  gambling  heavily 
with  the  distinguished  Senator  Petronius  Maximus,  obtained 
his  ring  as  a  security  for  the  money  he  had  won.  Maximus 
had  a  beautiful  wife  whom  the  Emperor  desired,  and  he 
sent  the  ring  to  her  with  a  summons  to  the  palace.  The 
unsuspecting  lady  was  conducted  to  Valentinian's  apart- 
ments, and  outraged  by  him.  For  this  crime,  and  in  virtue 
of  the  general  discontent,  Maximus  had  him  slain  and 
occupied  his  throne. 


THE   LAST   EMPRESSES   OF  THE   WEST        347 

Maximus  was  a  wealthy  Roman,  of  illustrious  family, 
and  peaceful  and  luxurious  ways,  so  that  we  have  little 
reason  to  doubt  that  an  outrage  on  his  wife  inspired  him 
with  the  thought  of  assassination.  The  further  course  of 
events  adds  authority  to  the  narrative.  His  wife  died  very 
closely  after  the  death  of  Valentinian,  and  he  invited  or 
compelled  Eudoxia  to  marry  him.  In  the  obscurity  and 
uncertainty  of  the  records  we  are  unable  to  understand  the 
consent  of  Eudoxia,  even  under  pressure.  Some  of  the 
later  Greeks  affirm  that  he  violated  her.  It  is  certain,  at 
least,  that  she  married  him  within  a  month  or  two  of  her 
husband's  tragic  death,  and  almost  immediately  afterwards 
sought  to  destroy  him.  Our  authorities,  late  and  uncertain 
as  they  are,  do  not  lack  plausibility  when  they  affirm  that 
he  one  day  confessed  that,  out  of  love  for  her,  he  had  directed 
the  assassination  of  her  husband.  Rome  had  returned 
to  evil  days,  and  tragedy  was  brooding  over  its  very 
ruins. 

In  a  fit  of  repulsion  Eudoxia  secretly  invited  the  Vandals 
to  cross  the  Mediterranean  and  avenge  her.  Historians 
too  lightly  admit,  in  extenuation  of  her  criminal  act,  that 
she  had  no  hope  of  help  from  the  East.  The  aged  and 
upright  Marcian  was,  it  is  true,  intent  upon  the  internal 
prosperity  of  his  Empire,  but  it  is  extremely  doubtful,  as 
the  sequel  will  show,  whether  the  deposition  of  Maximus 
would  have  offered  much  difficulty,  and  Eudoxia  was  the 
niece  of  Pulcheria.  Her  vindictive  act  hastened  the  end 
of  the  Empire.  Genseric  speedily  landed  his  fierce  troops 
on  Italian  soil,  and  the  Romans  at  once  slew  the  sullen 
or  remorseful  Maximus  and  cast  his  mangled  body  in  the 
Tiber.  The  further  adventures  of  Eudoxia,  interesting  as 
they  must  have  been,  are  compressed  in  a  few  lines.  After 
fourteen  days'  pillage,  the  Vandals  retreated  once  more 
from  the  stricken  city  of  Octavian,  laden  with  gold,  silver, 
women,  and  all  kinds  of  valuables.  Genseric  compelled 
Eudoxia  and  her  two  young  daughters  to  accompany  him. 
They  were  detained  at  Carthage  for  seven  years.  The 
Eastern  court  repeatedly  asked  for  their  release,  but  it 


348  THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

was  refused  until,  in  462,  the  elder  daughter,  Eudocia, 
was  married  to  Genseric's  son.  Eudoxia  and  the  second 
daughter,  Placidia,  were  then  sent  to  Constantinople.  Years 
afterwards — in  one  of  the  legends — we  catch  a  last  glimpse 
of  Eudoxia,  the  last  prominent  Empress  of  the  West.  She 
is  standing  before  the  column  of  Simeon  Stylites,  asking 
him  to  come  and  live  somewhere  on  her  ample  estate. 
Eudocia  lived  for  sixteen  years  at  Carthage,  then  escaped 
to  the  East,  and  ended  her  life  in  Palestine.  Placidia  we 
shall  meet  again  for  a  moment. 

We  turn  back  to  the  shrinking  Empire  of  the  West,  to 
dismiss  the  last  four  Imperial  shadows  that  flit  about  its 
ruins.  The  vacant  throne  was  occupied  by  the  commander 
of  the  Roman  forces  in  Gaul,  Avitus.  He  had  married, 
since  we  know  that  Sidonius  ApoUinaris  was  married  to 
his  daughter  Papianilla,  but  his  wife  was  dead,  and  we  need 
only  say  that,  after  he  had  enjoyed  the  Imperial  banquets 
for  a  few  months,  he  was  degraded  to  the  rank  of  a 
bishopric  by  the  commander  of  the  barbaric  troops,  with 
the  consent  of  the  disgusted  Romans,  and  he  died  soon 
afterwards.  He  was  followed  by  a  worthy  and  able  officer, 
whose  rule  might  have  illumined  a  more  propitious  age  ; 
but  we  find  no  Empress  in  association  with  him,  and  must 
pass  over  the  four  years  of  his  earnest  effort  to  redeem  the 
Empire.  After  his  death  Libius  Severus  had  a  nominal 
and  obscure  reign  of  four  years  (461-5),  and  again  we  find 
no  Empress  in  the  scanty  records. 

The  throne  remained  vacant  for  nearly  two  years, 
during  which  the  Vandals  harassed  the  miserable  remnant 
of  the  great  Empire.  At  length  the  chief  commander  in 
Italy,  Ricimer,  sought  the  aid  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  and 
the  alliance  was  sealed  by  the  Eastern  court  sending  one 
of  its  wealthiest  and,  by  birth,  most  illustrious  nobles, 
Anthemius,  to  occupy  the  throne.  His  Empress  was 
Euphemia,  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Marcian  by  his  first 
wife.  But  her  name,  and  the  names  of  her  father  and 
her  children,  are  all  that  we  find  recorded  concerning 
her,  and  we  need  not  dwell  on  the  failures  and  quarrels, 


THE   LAST  EMPRESSES  OF  THE   WEST        349 

or  the  last  faint  flicker  of  Roman  paganism,  which 
characterized  his  inauspicious  reign.  Within  four  years 
he  quarrelled  with  Ricimer,  and  his  life  was  trodden  out 
on  the  streets  of  Rome. 

For  a  few  months  Placidia,  the  daughter  of  Eudoxia, 
then  occupies  the  throne.  At  Constantinople,  to  which 
she  went  with  her  mother  from  her  Vandal  captivity, 
she  married  the  wealth}^  noble  Olybrius.  He  had  fled 
from  Rome  when  it  was  looted  by  the  Vandals,  and  had 
little  mind  to  exchange  the  safe  luxury  of  Constantinople 
for  its  uneasy  throne  when  Ricimer  offered  it  to  him.  It  is 
said  that  Placidia  impelled  him.  It  was  a  fatal  adventure. 
They  entered  Rome  in  the  train  of  Ricimer's  troops,  but 
Olybrius  succumbed  to  that  atmosphere  of  death  in  a  few 
months,  and  we  have  not  time  to  discern  the^  features 
of  Eudoxia's  daughter  before  she  sinks  into  the  large 
category  of  obscure  Imperial  widows.  His  successor, 
Glycerins,  a  puppet  of  the  chief  commander,  seems  to  have 
had  no  wife.  A  competitor  appeared  immediately,  and  he 
exchanged  the  uncertain  sceptre  of  the  Western  Empire 
for  the  solid  crozier  of  a  bishop. 

One  faint  and  shadowy  Empress  crosses  the  scene 
before  the  curtain  falls.  Once  more  the  Eastern  court  had 
provided  Italy — which  was  now  the  Western  Roman  Empire 
— with  a  ruler.  Julius  Nepos  set  up  his  court  at  Ravenna, 
and  had  for  Empress  a  niece  of  Verina,  the  Empress  of 
the  East.  But  the  barbarian  leaders  of  the  barbarian  army 
— ^the  only  army  that  remained  in  the  service  of  Rome — 
resented  the  Eastern  intruder,  and  marched  on  Ravenna. 
Nepos  fled  ignominiously ;  and  one  reads  with  interest, 
though  not  without  reserve,  that  he  was  put  to  death 
by  his  predecessor.  Bishop  Glycerins.  The  fate  of  his 
wife  is  unknown,  and  the  last  Empress  of  the  Western 
provinces  entirely  escapes  our  search. 

The  tattered  purple  was  offered  to  the  commander 
Orestes.  He  refused  it,  and  allowed  them  to  place  it  on 
the  shoulders  of  his  young  son  (476).  The  name  of  this 
pretty  and   innocuous   boy  united,  as  if  in  mockery,  the 


350  THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 

names  of  Romulus  and  Augustus.  To  later  times  his 
pathetic  figure  is  known  as  Augustulus.  His  father  was 
slain  by  the  troops  immediately  afterwards,  because  he 
refused  to  distribute  one-third  of  the  soil  of  Italy  between 
them.  The  Empire  was  now  a  mere  phrase;  Rome  a 
plaything  of  the  barbarians  whom  it  had  cowed  for  five 
or  six  hundred  years.  Odoacer,  the  latest  leader  of  the 
troops,  bade  the  child  put  off  his  purple  mantle  and  begone, 
and  some  time  afterwards — so  low  had  Rome  fallen  that 
the  year  of  this  impressive  consummation  cannot  accurately 
be  determined — forced  the  Senate  to  abolish  the  Imperial 
succession  in  the  West.  Italy  became  the  kingdom  of  a 
barbarian.  Britain,  Gaul,  Germany,  and  Spain  were  turned 
into  the  battle-grounds  of  those  fierce  tribes  who,  after  the 
violence  and  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages,  would  in  their 
turn  scatter  the  seed  of  civilization  over  the  earth.  The 
gallery  of  Western  Empresses  was  closed  by  the  irrevocable 
hand  of  fate,  and  the  long,  quaint  gallery  of  the  Byzantine 
Empresses  was  thrown  open. 


INDEX 


Ablabius,  283 

Acerronia  Pollia,  102 

Acholius,  318 

Acte,  95,  105,  121 

Actium,  19 

Adultery  at  Rome,  26,  200 

JEliSL  Capitolina,  160 

—  Paetina,  62,  80 
iEmilianus,  L.  A.  L.,  130,  131 
iEtius.  344.  345.  346 

Afer.  253 

Agrippa,  M.  v.,  25,  26,  27 

—  son  of  Julia,  33,  35-6 
Agrippina,  the  elder.  33,  37,  41,  42,46 

—  the  younger,  54,   65,  67,  80,  81, 
82-104 

—  memoirs  of,  14,  44,  64,  73,  80 
Ahenobarbus,  C.  D.,  81 
Albinus,  196,  197,  198 

Alexander  Severus,  212,  219-21,  222- 

Alexandra,  St.,  256 

Alexandria,  159,  207 

Alexandrian  Chronicle,  the,  307,  311 

Alexianus.     See  Alexander 

Ambrose,  St.,  266,  314,  315,  318,  319 

Anastasia,  288 

Anicetus,  100,  102,  103,  iii 

Annius  Verus,  164 

"  Anonymus  Valesii,"  267 

Antinous,  157,  159 

Antioch,  27,  145,  171 

Antonia,  81 

Antoninus  Pius,  162,  163,  165-8,  169 

ApoUodorus,  153 

Appian,  202 


Appius  Silanus,  68 

Appuleia  Varilia,  42 

Arcadia,  328 

Arcadius,  320,  321,  333,  323,  326-32 

Argentocoxus,  203 

Argobastes,  321 

Arintheus,  325 

Arsenius,  320 

Asiaticus,  Valerius.  71-2 

Astrology  at  Rome,  85 

Ataulph,  341,  342 

Athanasius,  293,  296 

Athenais,  333,  334 

Athens,  138 

Attalus.  239 

Attianus,  142,  147,  149,  133" 

Attila,  343,  346 

Auctions  of  Caligula,  the.  34,  37 

Augustans,  the,  119,  120 

Augustine,  St..  274,  314 

Augustulus,  330 

Augustus,  title  of.  19 

Aurelian,  241,  243-51 

Avitus,  348 

Bacchanalia,  the,  74 

Baise,  53,  loi 

Balbinus,  233,  236 

Barbatoria,  14 

Baring-Gould,  Mr.,  3,  90,  91.  100.  103, 

118 
Baronius,  236,  311 
Basil,  St..  310 
Bassani.  186 
Bassianus,  the  elder,  195 
—  the  younger.     See  Cauracalia 


351 


352 


THE   EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 


Bassianus,  Senator,  273 

—  V.  A.     See  Elagabalus 

Bassus,  Pomponius,  217 

Bauto.  326 

Berenice,  130 

Boissier,  M.,  136 

Boniface,  Count,  344 

Britannicus,  65,  76.  83,  86,  92,  96 

Bruttius  Praesens,  182 

Burrus,  85,  92,  93,  103,  107,  108 

Bury,  Prof.,  211,  273,  277,  280,  346 

Caenis,  128-9 

Caesar,  Julius,  6,  10 

Caesonia,  Milonia,  55,  56,  59,  130 

Caius  Caesar  =  Caligula 

Caius,  son  of  Julia,  32-3 

Caledonians,  the,  203 

Caligula,  37,  49-59 

Callistus,  80 

Calpumia,  75,  79,  84 

Calpumius  Piso,  52 

Candidian,  263 

Capitolinus,  Julius,  166,  172,  173 

Caprea?,  34,  48 

Caracalla,  196,  199,  202,  203,  204-9 

Caractacus,  84 

Carinus,  252-4 

Camuntum,  261 

Cams.  251 

Cassianus  Postumus,  242 

Cassiodorus,  267 

Cassius,  Avidius,  175,  177 

Castricia,  330 

Ceionia,  170 

Celsa,  Nonia,  210,  213 

Celsus,  153 

Centumcellae,  182 

Charito,  306 

Christians,  persecution  of  the,  257-9 

Chrysaphius,  336,  337 

Chrysostom,    John,    327,    328,    329, 

330-2 
Cinna,  20 
Circus,  the,  7 

—  factions  of  the,  56,  109,  .124 
Claudii,  the,  9 

Claudius.  60,  61,  62,  64-76,  79-82,  141 

—  II,  244 
Cleander,  187 


Cleopatra.  8,  10,  13,  18,  19 

—  servant  of  Claudius,  75,  79 
Clodia,  12 

Cohen,  238,  253,  307 
Cologne,  84,  138 
Commodus,  L.  C.  157,  162 

—  L.  v.,  169,  170,  172,  175,  180 

—  son  of  Marcus,  172,  181,  182-9 
Constans,  286,  289 
Constantia,  273,  275,  276.  283 

—  wife  of  Gratian,  313 
Constantina,  F.  J.,  288,  289,  290-3 
Constantine,  260,  271-85 

—  the  younger,  286,  287 
Constantinople,  founding  of,  283,  284 
Constantius,  254,  260,  266-71 

—  the   younger,    286,    287,   289,  29, 
292-304 

—  General,  342 
Contubernium ,  129 
Corbulo,  Domitius,  130 
Comificia,  205 

Corruption  at  Rome.  21,  34,  136-7 

Crepereius  Gallus,  102 

Crinitus,  Ulpius,  250 

Crispilla,  Quintia,  236 

Crispina,  183,  184 

Crispus,  274,  278-82 

—  Passienus,  67 
Curia  mulierum,  6,  202 

Daza,  259 

"  Deaths  of  the  Persecutors,"  236. 

258 
Decius,  237 
Delmatius,  286,  287 
Dexippus,  225 
Diadumenianus,  210 
Didia  Clara,  192,  193 
Dill,  Dr.  S.,  136 
Dio,  9,  15,  16,  26,  29,  43,  45,  51,  64. 

73.  84.  95.  99.  114.  129,  131.  133. 

142,  146,  169,  176,  188,  200,  202. 

207,  228 
Diocletian,  253-60,  261,  262 
Divination  at  Rome.  85 
Dominica,  Albia,  307,  308.  310 
Domitia  Lepida.  68.  89 

—  Longina,  130,  131-5 
Domitian.  130-4 


INDEX 


353 


Domltian,  Prefect,  292 
Domitilla,  Flavia,  128,  130 
Domna,  Julia,  194,  195,  196-209 
Domus  Vectiliana,  190 
Drepanum,  266 
DrusUla,  daughter  of  Agrippina,  51 

—  daughter  of  Cjesonia,  55,  59 
Dnisus  Nero,  15 

—  son  of  Agrippina,  47 

—  son  of  Livia,  24,  31,  37,  41,  61 
Duruy,  148,  156,  161,  172,  239 

Eboracum,  155,  203 
Eclectus,  188,  193 
Elagabal,  195,  215 
Elagabalus.  200,  211-21 
Eleuthera,  St.,  256 
Emesa,  195,  209,  212 
Empress,  the  title,  9 
Ennia.  50-1 
Ephesus,  158 
Epicureanism,  164 
Etruscilla,  Herenaia,  237 
Eucer,  no 
Eudocia,  334-8 
Eudoxia.  325.  326,  327-31 

—  Licinia,  335,  346.  347 
Euphemia,  348 

Eusebia,  Aurelia,  294,  296-301,  303 
Eusebius,  Bishop.  249,  257,  262,  267, 
^75>  279,  287, 296 

—  eunuch,  295 

Eutropia,  Galeria  Valeria,  254.  270, 

283 
Eutropius,  325,  326,  327,  328 

—  historian,  200,  206,  257,  268,  272, 
275.  279 

Fabia,  180,  1 81 
Fadilla,  187 

—  Julia,  158 

—  Junia,  230 
Falco,  190 

Fausta,  271,  272,  277,  278-82 
Faustina,  the  elder,  163,  164-8 

—  the  younger,  169,  170-8 

—  Maxima,  304,  308 

—  Rnpilia,  164 
Faustinopolis,  177 
Felix,  112 

23 


Firth,  Mr.,  267,  277,  280 
Flaccilla,  ^Elia,  317.  318 
Flaminian  Circus,  30 
Flavian,  Archbishop,  336,  337 
Forum,  the,  7,  19 

—  of  Trajan,  the,  143 
Freedmen  at  Rome,  62,  63,  68 
Fronto,  166,  172 

Fucine  Lake,  87 

Fulvia,  lo,  12,  13 

Fundana,    Galeria,    123,     124,    135, 

126-8 
Fumilla,  Marcia,  129,  130 

Gainas,  329 

Galba,  Sulpicius,  67,  120,  123 

Galerius,  254,  256,  258,  260,  261 

Galla,  317,  318,  319,  320,  321 

Gallienus.  238.  239.  242,  244 

Callus,  237.  290-4 

Gannys,  212 

Gardner,  A.,  299 

Genseric,  347 

Germanicus.  37-8 

Geta.  196,  201,  202,  204,  205 

Gibbon.  2,  45,  131,  136,  141,  169,  211, 

224,  225,  228,  239,  245,  247.  248. 

267,  274.  278.  301,  331,  337 
Glycerius,  349 

Golden  House  of  Nero.  115,  129 
Gordianus,  234 

—  the  younger,  236 
G6rres,  Dr.,  279 
Goteke,  270 

Gratian,  307,  312.  313,  314 
Greece,  Nero  in,  119 
Gregorovius,  151,  156,  161 
Guldenpenning,  317 

Hadrian,    139,    141,    142,    145,    147, 

149-^3.  169 
Hannibalian,  286,  287.  288 
Helena,  265,  266-70.  277,  278,  282-3 

—  wife  of  Julian,  297,  298,  299-304 
Henderson,  Mr,,  90, 109 
Herennianus,  241 

Herod,  27 

—  Agrippa,  49,  59 
Herodes,  241 

Herodian,  200,  201,  206,  223 


354 


THE  EMPRESSES  OF  ROME 


"Historia  Augusta,"  the,  45,  142, 
146,  150,  152,  166,  172,  175,  i88, 
205,  206,  211,  217,  249,  257 

Hodgkin,  Mr.,  346 

Honoria.  335,  342,  344,  345 

Honorius.  317.  321,  323,  324,  341,  342 

Hortensius,  19 

Hostilianus,  237 

Huns,  the.  344 

Ifland,  Dr.,  317 
Imperator,  the  title,  9 

Jerome.  St.,  267,  279 

Jerusalem,  159,  160 

Josephus,  112,  130,  132 

Jovian,  306,  307 

Julia,  daughter  of  Octavian,  23-30 

—  the  younger,  33-4 

—  daughter  of  Drusus,  66-7 

—  daughter  of  Titus,  131 

—  Livilla,  65 

Julian,  the  Emperor,  140,  166,  172, 

227,  282,  284,  288,  290,  296-305 
Julianus,  Didius,  192,  193 
Julius,  son  of  Julia,  32-3 
Junia  Claudilla,  49 

—  Silana,  98 
Junius  Silanus,  49,  50 

Justina.  Aviana,   311,   312-17,   318, 

319 
Juvenal,  137 

Komemann,  Professor,  43 

Lactantius,  258,  261,  272 

Laeta,  313 

Laetus,  188,  190,  193 

Lake  Agrippa,  114 

Lampridius,  200,  203,  224,  225 

Leontius,  296 

Lepida,  Domitia,  68,  89 

—  wife  of  Galba,  123 
Lepidus,  54 

—  the  Triumvir,  6,  8,  17 
Libanius,  296 
Liberius,  296 
Licinius,  262,  263,  273-5 

—  the  younger,  276,  278 


Livia,  6,  8,  9,  10,  15-17, 19-21,  24-44 

—  MeduUina  Camilla,  61 

—  Orestilla,  52 
Liviada,  20 
Livilla,  41.  47.  54 

Livius  Drusus  Claudianus,  9 

Locusta,  90,  96 

Lollia  Paulina,  52,  55.  80,  83-4 

Lollius,  32 

Londinium,  155 

Lucilla,  175,  179,  183,  184 

Lucius  Domitius  =  Nero 

Lucullan  Gardens,  the,  71,  72,  75 

Lugdunum,  54 

Lutetia,  154 

Luxury  at  Rome,  16,  34,  54 

Lycisca,  69 

Mace  Hum,  290 

Macrinus,  Opilius,  208,  209-12 

—  Sallustius,  225 
Macro,  50-1 
Macrobius,  27 
Maecenas,  12,  18 
Mseonius,  241,  242 

Maesa,  Julia,  200,  202,  211-19 
Magnentius,  289,  290,  292 
Malala,  John,  337 
Mamaea,  Julia,  211,  219,  222-31 
Marcella,  24,  25,  26 
Marcellinus,  Ammianus,  234, 284, 291 , 
294.  299.  300,  3" 

—  Chronicle  of,  319,  337 
Marcellus,  24,  25 
Marcia,  185-9,  193 
Maxcian,  339,  347 
Marciana,  139, 140,  144 

—  Paccia,  196 

Marcus  Aurelius,  162,  164,  167,  169- 

78 
Mardonius,  296 
Maria,  324 
Marina,  307 

—  daughter  of  Eudoxia,  331 
Mariniana,  238 

Marius,  243 

—  Maximus,  173,  175,  176 

Mark  Antony,  6,  8,  10,  12,  13,  18,  19 
Marriage,  Roman,  268-9 
Marsa,  330 


INDEX 


355 


Matidia,  the  elder,  139,  144,  148 

—  the  younger,  139 
Maxentius,  261,  273 
Maximian,  254,  261,  271-2 
Maximin,  261,  262,  263 
Maximinus,  229,  230,  232-5 
Maximus,  314,  315,  316,  318 

—  Petronius,  346-7 

—  Pupienus,  235,  236 
Memnia,  226 
Mercurius,  295 

Merivale,  2,  32,  37,  41,  43,  73,  90,  141, 

147.  172 
Messalina,  Statilia,  n8,  119,  121,  123 

—  Valeria,  60.  61,  62,  63-78,  141 
Metaphrastes,  320 

Milvian  Bridge,  29 
Minervina,  274 
Mnester,  70,  ^6 
Montius,  292 

Naissos,  266 

Narcissus,  63,  68,  75,  76,  79,  87,  92 

Negri,  Gaetano,  298 

Nepos,  Julius,  349 

Nepotian,  290 

Nero,  son  of  Agrippina  the  elder,  47 

—  the  Emperor,  80,   81,    85,   86,  89, 
93.  95.  96-121 

Nerva,  M.  C,  135 
Nicaea,  Council  of,  277 
Nicomedia,  palace  of,  255 
Niger,  196,  197 
Nigrinus,  153 
Nlmes,  mausoleum  at,  148 
Numerianus,  252,  253 

Octavia,  13,  18,  24,  26,  33 

—  daughter  of  Messalina,  65,  76,  80, 
86,  95,  96,  97,  99,  105,  108-11 

Octavian,  6,  7,  8,  g,    13,  14,  15,  16, 

17-21,  24-36 
Odenathus,  240-2 
Odoacer,  350 
Olybrius,  349 
Oppian  Law,  the,  5 
Orbiana,  Sallustia  Barbia,  225 
Orestes,  349 
Orosius,  267,  279 


Orphanages,  144, 168, 177 

Ostia,  74 

Otho,  Salvius,  loi,  106,  108,  no,  123 

Paganism,  insincerity  of,  216 

Pagans,  origin  of  name,  314 

Pagi,  256 

Palatine  Hill,  the,  7,  10,  19 

Palladium,  the,  216 

Pallas,  63,  80,  83,  85,  96 

Palma,  153 

Palmyra,  240,  241,  246 

Pandateria,  30,  47,  iii 

Papianilla,  348 

Paris  in  the  fourth  century,  30a 

Paris,  the  actor,  98,  13a 

Paula,  Julia  Cornelia,  216 

Paulina.  234 

Paulmus,  333,  334,  336 

Paulus,  295 

Perennis,  185 

Pertinax,  189-91 

Petronia,  124 

Petronius,  307 

Philanthropy  in  the  Roman  world, 

144,  168,  177 
Philip,  the  Emperor,  236,  237 
Philostorgius,  280,  287,  293 
Philostratus,  202 
Pipara,  239 
Piso,  C.  C,  38,  39 
Pissaraena,  313 
Placidia,  SXva.  Galla,  324,   334,  341, 

342-5 

—  the  younger,  349 
Planasia,  35 
Plancina,  38,  39 
Plautia  Urgulanilla,  61 
Plautianus,  199-201 
Plautilla,  199,  201 
Pliny,  9,  42,  139 
Plotina,  138-48 
Polemo,  166,  167 

Pollio,  Trebellius,  240,  247 

Polybius,  63 

Pompeianus,  Claudius,  181,  184,  205 

Pompeius  Planta,  138 

Pompey,  8 

Poppaea,  99,  107,  108,  110-17 

—  Sabina,  72,  107 


356 


THE  EMPRESSES   OF  ROME 


Poppaeus  Sabinus,  107 

Porphyry  of  Gaza,  329 

Praetorian  Guards,  the,  50,   58,  61, 

119, 227 
Prisca,  256,  257,  259,  260,  261-4 
Probus,  251 
Procopius,  308-9 
Puech,  Professor,  329,  332 
Puellae  Faustinianae,  168,  177 
Pulcheria,  317,  328,  332-g 
Puteoli,  53 
Pyrallis,  55 
Pythagoras,  114 

Quadratus,  184,  185 
Quietus,  Lusius,  152,  153 
Quintilius,  245 

Eeligion  at  Rome,  216 
Renan, 136,  172 
Ricimer,  348,  349 
Rome,  burning  of,  114 
Romula,  256,  258 
Rostra,  the,  29 
Rubellius  Plautus,  98 
Rufinus,  325,  326,  327 
Rufus  Crispinus,  108 

Sabina,  139,  144,  148,  149-61,  202 

Sabinus,  131 

Sacred  Way,  the,  8 

Sallustius,  307 

Salona,  260 

Salonina,  Cornelia,  239,  244 

Saloninus,  242 

Sapor,  240,  247 

Saturninus,  337 

Scantilla,  Manha,  192,  igj 

Schultz,  O.,  45 

Scotland,  203 

Scribonia,  12,  13,  14,  22 

Seeck,  Dr.,  279 

Sejanus,  41,  42,  47 

Selinus,  146 

Senaculum,  214 

Senate,  the  Roman,  43,  93,  103,  iii, 

119,  153 
Seneca,  31,  66.  ^^,  85,  93,  95,  96,  97, 

107, 108,  no,  113 


Serena,  324 

—  St.,  256 

Servianus,  Ursus,  149,  162 

Serviez,  Roergas  de,  3,  4,  32.  33,  67, 

87,  90,  112,  146,  153,  166,  207 
Servilia,  11 
Severa,  Julia  Aquilia,  216 

—  Marcia  Otacilia,  237 

—  Valeria,  307,  311,  312 
Severian,  263 

—  Bishop,  330 
Severina,  Ulpia,  250 
Severus,  261 

—  deacon,  337 

—  Livius,  348 

—  Septimus,  193,  194-204 
Sextilia,  124,  125,  126,  127 
Sextus  Pompeius,  10,  12,  17 
Sidonius  ApoUinaris,  280,  348 
Silanus,  Junius,  95 

—  Lucius.  95 

Silius,  Caius,  72.  73,  74,  76 

Silvagni,  V..  3 

Simeon  Stylites,  338,  348 

Sinuessa,  90 

Smyrna,  158 

Soaemias,   Julia,    200,  203,  211,  212, 

213,  214-21 
Socrates,  the  historian,  312 
Sosibius,  71,  72 
Sozomen,  276 

Spartianus,  146,  155,  157,  160 
Sporus,  118,  121 
Stahr,  A.,  3 
Stilicho,  324,  325 

Stoicism,  66,  135,  144,  162,  164,  168 
Subura,  6,  9,  21,  29 
Suetonius,  31,  40,  42,  45,  48.  53.  55, 

64,  88,  90.  134.  155 
Suidas,  296 
Suillius,  71 
Sulpicianus.  192 
Sura,  142,  150 
Syria  and  Rome.  222 

Tacitus,  9,  14.  31.  41.  43.  44.  45.  46. 
64,  72,  79,  80,  83,  90.  95.  99.  I". 

"5 

—  the  Emperor,  251 
Tarvey,  Mr.,  32 


INDEX 


357 


Tertulla,  Arricidia,  129 

Tertullus,  171 

Tetricus,  243,  249 

Theatre,  the  Roman,  58,  109 

Thebes,  159,  160 

Theoclea,  230 

Theodora,  Flavia  Maximiana,  270,283 

Theodoret,  310,  316 

Theodosius,  313,  314,  316,  317-21 

—  II,  328,  332-8 
Theophanes,  336,  337 
Theophilus,  304,  330 
Thermantia,  A.  M.,  324 
Thessalonica,  massacre  of,  319 
Thirty  Tyrants,  the,  239 
Tiberius  Claudius  Germanicus,  65 
Nero,  10,  II,  14,  15,  40 

—  the  Emperor,  10,  24,  25,  28,  31,  32, 

34.  35.  36-42.  46-9 
Tigellinus,  no,  116 
Tillemont,  307,  312,  304,  326,  330, 

331 
Timesitheus,  236 
Timolaus,  241 
Titiana,  Flavia,  190,  191 
Titus,  129,  131 

—  OUius,  107 
Tivoli,  156,  160 
Toledo,  Council  of,  269 
Trajan,  135,  138,  139-46 
Tranquillina,  Furia  Sabina,  236 
Triaria,  127 

Triumphal  procession,  7 

Ulpianus,  Domitius,  227,  228 
Urbica,  Magnia,  253 
Urgulania,  40,  6i 

Vaballath,  241,  242 
Valens,  307,  308,  309,  310 


Valentinian,  307,  311-13 

—  II,  313,  318,  319,  321 

—  in.  335,  342,  343,  346 
Valeria,  256,  257,  259,  260,  261-4 
Valerianus,  238 

Valerius  Messala  Barbatus,  62 

Vandals,  the,  344,  347 

Velabrum,  6,  7,  9 

Verina,  349 

Vespasian,  127,  128-9,  138 

Vestal  Virgins,  132 

Vestinus,  Atticus,  xi8 

Vetranio,  289 

Vettius  Valens,  74,  76 

Vibidia,  75 

Vice  in  the  Roman  Empire,  136-7,144 

Victor,  Aurelius,  161,  165,  200,  207, 

257,  268.  279,  284 

"Epitome,"  148,  206,  280,  312 

Victoria,  242-4 

Victorinus,  243 

Vindex,  120 

Vipsania,  28 

Vitellius,  the  elder,  56,  71,  75,  80,  82, 

124 

—  the  Emperor,  124-8 
Volusianus,  237 
Vopiscus,  245,  247 

Wilkins,  M.  G.,  197,  207 

Woman,  position  of,  at  Rome,  4-6 

Xenophon,  91 

Zabda,  246 

Zenobia,  240,  241,  242,  244-50 
Zonaras,  268,  272,  276,  303 
2Josimus,  234,  245,  248,  249,  257,  267, 
272,  276,  280,  284,  298,  316,  320 


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